Cricket: Offence the best defence, says Taylor

New Zealand look to bounce back against India after innings defeat.

BANGALORE: Attacking the Indian spinners is the best possible way to survive against them, according to New Zealand captain Ross Taylor.

The visitors lost the opening Test by an innings and 115 runs with the Indian spin duo of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha sharing 18 of the 20 wickets. New Zealand were bundled out for 159 and 164 and need to tackle the spinners better if they are to avoid a whitewash in the two-test series.

“It’s never easy when you lose a test by an innings,” said Taylor on the eve of the second and final Test. “We need to forget about the result as quickly as possible, talk amongst the group and find ways of playing Ashwin and Ojha well. We have to be brave and courageous and attack both of them and hopefully put pressure back on them. And when we attack them, there hopefully won’t be many men around the bat.”

Ashwin picked up 12 wickets while Ojha bagged six as the match finished within four days in Hyderabad. But Taylor ruled out making any hasty changes for the second Test.

“We gave them faith in the first game and we’re going to give them a go in the next game as well. We didn’t play as well as we would have liked, but this is another opportunity to show how good we are as a team.”

Meanwhile, MS Dhoni will just try to stick to the tried and tested formula that worked perfectly for them in Hyderabad.

“We don’t need to be overconfident and whatever we did right in the first test, we have to repeat everything and try to stick to the basics and keep things simple,” said Dhoni.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2012.