Neil Wagner confident of winning against India

Neil Wagner

New Zealand fast bowler Neil Wagner has said that his team is still in a very strong position to win the first Test against India at Auckland. The Kiwis were bowled out for 105 in the second innings after they chose not to enforce follow-on. Chasing 407 to win, India ended the day 3 on a positive note with the score at 87/1.

Wagner said, “It’s a bit of a bitter-sweet day. We started off really well with the ball this morning and it was a great result to get them out for the score we did. Obviously, the batting after that really wasn’t ideal stuff but at the end of the day, we are pretty happy with where we are.”

He added: “There are still a lot of runs on the board left to get and if we bowl well, we can get the nine wickets if we start off well tomorrow morning. It doesn’t look like an ideal scenario but at the start of the game, we would have taken this any day. Everybody was very happy with the decision. It was a bit of a time for the bowlers to freshen up a little bit, have a quick ice bath and have the legs ready enough for the second innings. It gave us a little bit of time to get reset and refocus on what we need to do.”

The 27-year-old had words of praise for the Indian team. He said: “Credit, where credit is due and India bowled very well today. Shami in particular started them off very well. They bowled a better length on that wicket than they did in the first innings. They were very patient and definitely asked very good questions at the start. They bowled very well and that’s why they got rewards for it. I don’t think we batted poorly or badly. I think it’s just the nature of the game. Sometimes the bowlers are allowed to bowl well and so they did.”

Highly optimistic of his team’s chances, Wagner concluded by saying: “I think the key is just to be patient and not go searching too much. We still have got quite a few runs left to play with. If we bowl really well and get two quick wickets, we are definitely in the hunt. We have two top-class bowlers in (Trent) Boult and Timmy (Southee). The way they have been performing this whole summer has been outstanding. No doubt tomorrow morning they will come hard.”