Umpires have final say on bad light: Ronchi

Kolkata, Oct 1 (IANS) New Zealand middle-order batsman Luke Ronchi said on Saturday that stand-in captain Ross Taylor’s repeated claims of bad light during an overcast and rain-shortened day two of the second Test against India went in vain as the umpires take the final call.

"It was exactly the same like it was yesterday. Umpires take a call on when seamers can bowl and when the spinners can bowl or whatever during bad light. Yesterday we had the option to bowl spin but we chose not to.

"India wanted to bowl couple of overs of spin today I guess, but umpires must have intervened and said it is too dark to play," Ronchi, who fell for 35 to Ravindra Jadeja just before rain halted play and early tea was called, told reporters after the match.

"It's the umpire's decision at the end of the day. We can't say about it. Of course we can ask the umpire to have a look at it. But at the end of the day it's their call."

Ronchi admitted the visitors did not bat the way they wanted to.

"We did not get too many runs as we wanted to. Well, that's cricket. We will comeback tomorrow and scrap as many (wickets) as we can (when India bat in the second innings)."

Medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who hogged all the limelight with his five-wicket haul was a combination of everything, Ronchi said.

"He was a combination of everything. With the new ball this wicket is doing a few more things. The bounce is unpredictable with the harder ball and is swinging around. He came back to bowl to a nice line. He was the best option they (India) had. He was making the batsmen play what he wanted to and not what we wanted to. He bowled really well."

Ronchi has been on the wrong side of a few decisions in the last Test in Kanpur. Asked about that, he admitted he got off with one on Saturday.

"That's cricket. I think I got away with one as well today. It's just the way it works. It is going to happen lot of times when you play cricket for as long as people play cricket for."

"You are going to get some good ones and you are going to get away with some, it is just chin up and keep going along. As long as you can stay positive and hit the ball like you want to and get as many runs as you possibly can, it is just the way it goes," he said.

Ronchi said the contribution of Indian tailenders has made the difference.

"They are making runs at the end of the innings, which made a difference. Today they were 240 overnight and then they made 300 and whatever, that's a big chunk of runs from the last three wickets. That is something we have to improve on to stay in this Test, or in this series even, going forward."

"Hopefully tomorrow we can do the same thing with our tail, make some runs and they'll be very valuable runs in the situation we are in," the 35-year old added.

--IANS

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