After securing a Test series win against India in India, New Zealand skipper Tom Latham said that the true magnitude of this victory will sink in once they are back home.
Defeating India, New Zealand brought an end to India`s unbeaten run in 18 Test series in their backyard over the last 12 years.
After beating India by eight wickets on a seaming wicket in Bengaluru in the first Test, New Zealand won on spin-friendly pitches in Pune and Mumbai by 113 runs and 25 runs respectively.
“It`s been a massive achievement, after the first (Test) it was obviously pretty special; the second one to win a series was even more special”, Latham told the reporters here.
“We spoke about coming here and trying to adapt as much as we can and to be in this position (of winning) 3-0, it`s certainly a series that I`ll never forget.”
“We`ll obviously celebrate as a group together over tonight and the next couple of days before we head home. It`s certainly been an amazing series to be a part of… It will sink in a little bit more when we get home and once the dust settles a little bit”, he said.
“It`s obviously a great moment for New Zealand cricket, probably one of New Zealand cricket`s greatest series wins”, he added.
Tom Latham also opened up on winning two tosses out of three Tests by saying it was instrumental. “We managed to fall on the right side of a couple of tosses and in doing that we managed to put runs on the board in the last couple of games”, he said.
“When you`re chasing scores, from our point of view, runs on the board are really important and some of these surfaces that we`ve played on have been really hard and they certainly haven`t got easier from a batting point of view”, he added.
Tom Latham believed that as long as Rishabh Pant was at the crease, the game was still on. The Indian wicketkeeper-batsman smashed 9 fours in his 64-run knock which came in 59 deliveries.
He was the only batsman to score a half-century in India`s second innings of the run chase of 147 runs.
“With Rishabh still there, I certainly didn`t believe that the game was over. They (India) have match winners throughout their side and they`ve been successful playing the way that they`ve been playing for a long period of time”, he said.
“We knew today India were going to come hard and they did that in Pune and they did that again today and we obviously managed to get the results, which was really nice”, he said.
However, Latham said New Zealand players heard two noises when Pant came down to defend a delivery off Ajaz Patel and was contentiously declared out a dismissal that effectively gave New Zealand the win.
“A few of us heard two noises. When you`re in that situation, you leave it up to the umpire`s hands. We can`t necessarily see the footage that the third umpire gets, so that`s certainly out of our control in terms of what that may look like”, he said.
“We heard a couple of noises and decided to take the review and it fell on the right side for us so, that`s up to the umpires, it`s out of our control”, Latham added.
Tom Latham also heaped praise on Glenn Phillips for partnering up with Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel. His role in the Test series was crucial as he claimed eight wickets across three Tests.
“We`re lucky with two guys in our top six that are able to bowl”, he said.
“Rachin (Ravindra) didn`t play a massive part with the ball this series but having Glenn, who can bat (at No) 7 and bowl some off-spins, not long ago he was a wicket-keeper so he`s come a long way over the last couple of years.”
“He`s someone that loves bowling, loves trying to get better not also as bowling but also as batting, the way yesterday he came out and tried to counter-punch the Indian attack, he managed to get 20 or 30 pretty quickly.
“Sometimes, runs on these surfaces are more important than time so he`s obviously played a massive part in our squad over the last couple of years”, Tom Latham added.
(With PTI Inputs)
