Latham: Things didn't unfold the way we would have wanted them to

In the absence of regular skipper Kane Williamson, Tom Latham led the Kiwis in the series-deciding fixture.

Tom Latham admitted his batters should have shown more grit and batted on for long to save the Mumbai Test.

New Zealand had a forgettable outing at the Wankhede Stadium as it suffered a 372-run defeat against India in the second Test match. 

In the absence of regular skipper Kane Williamson, Tom Latham led the Kiwis in the series-deciding fixture. Even though Ajaz Patel picked 14 wickets in the game –including all 10 in India's first innings – New Zealand batters had an embarrassing outing – managing just 62 and 167.

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Latham, however, wants to concentrate on the positives. “From our point of view, something that we always talk about is the character and the effect that we put in. Obviously, when you get bowled out for 62 in your first innings it puts you behind. Something that we talked about was... trying to put in as much effort as you can. We have certainly done that over the last four days. If you take the first innings out of it, then obviously it’s a little bit of a different story,” he said.

 

“In cricket, everything you do doesn’t tend to work and it’s just one of those days. Unfortunately, it was our time. Things didn’t quite unfold the way we would have wanted to. In India, the longer you go throughout the match the harder it gets. It was just one of those games where we couldn't get the right result,” Latham added.

Latham admitted his batters should have shown more grit and batted longer to save the Test. “From our batting point of view, it's important that batters do the bulk of the work. Unfortunately, we were five-down overnight, and we had full confidence that guys would go out there and apply themselves for as long as they could but unfortunately, it could not work out today,” he signed off.