Jamieson on bowler-friendly pitches: What do you think? You like it?
Kyle Jamieson took 3 for 35 on a spicy pitch in Wellington • Associated Press
Following a T20I series in which New Zealand reset their record for the highest total at home and India chased down 198 in 13.2 overs, the ODI leg of the tour has been decidedly bowler friendly. On Saturday, New Zealand were bowled out for 134 in Wellington but that was enough to produce a tight game, which eventually went India's way by a margin of just four runs.
"What do you think? You like it? You guys like it?" New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson asked, while replying to a question about low-scoring matches, "I mean, I'm biased, so I'm always going to say it's nice to have them back."
Jamiseon bowled 10 of New Zealand's 26 overs in the game and picked up 3 for 35. "I feel like I've played on a fair few pitches and a fair few wickets that I feel like going at tens is probably a good day," he said. "So it's nice to have a little bit of a favour now again. And, I mean, I hope the viewer can appreciate, I guess, some of the skill that was on show from both bowling line-ups and some of the batters as well."
India's Gurnoor Brar produced the defining performance of the second ODI, picking up 4 for 35. Fast bowlers from both teams averaged less than 15 runs per wicket thanks to significant and uneven bounce off a pitch that had been juiced up by the rain in Wellington.
"It was nice, wasn't it? Nice change for us bowlers," Jamiseon said. "Yeah, I mean, obviously a couple or a week or so, whenever it was, between the T20 and one-dayers, I think it was a fresh drop-in pitch, I think, from my understanding. And it can just change.
"We kind of spoke about the halfway mark around, you know, sort of regardless of the runs on the board and how that had played out in the first innings, still trying to, I guess, show some fight as a bowling unit and just seeing what happens. So I think we can probably, you know, probably say we did that pretty well. And just, yeah, a little bit of rain, a little bit of lack of runs kind of held us up today."
New Zealand were bowled out for 185 in the first ODI and couldn't reach 150 in this one. Is there frustration about not scoring enough? "No," Jamieson said. "I think we've seen, like, probably throughout, like the tosses played a part in terms of, you know, batting first has been a little bit trickier than second, when it gets under lights and a little bit of moisture. Nah, never any real frustration around totals and that sort of thing. You know, there's days where we'd like more runs and there's days where I'm sure the batters would like us to take a few more wickets too. So, just, yeah, part and parcel. I'm sure the boys will be reflecting and learning as they do always and, yeah, hoping for a good effort in Hamilton [on Tuesday]."
Jamiseon also touched on how he's been feeling his way back to his best following the winter break.
"It sort of felt like a little bit of a slow burn, sort of trying to just get the game rhythm back under my belt," he said, "And probably even just mentally just trying to get over the hurdle of allowing myself to, like, you know, to let go and just to, I guess, play with that freedom and not worry about, you know, what's going down at sort of L4, L5 areas [of the spine]. So, yeah, I felt like I had a good winter after the UK Test series and, yeah, I feel like things are in a pretty good place at the moment."
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