Batting coach Luke Ronchi felt pleased seeing New Zealand dominate Day 1 of the second Test against Bangladesh, bringing a sense of normalcy back to their game and fortunes in home conditions.
After shockingly losing the opening Test in Mount Maunganui on the back of paltry scores of 328 and 169, the Kiwis quickly returned to their best and posted 349/1 on January 9 in Christchurch.
Ronchi believes it was a case of going back to the basics and keeping them tight over long periods of time. In complete contrast to their second-innings collapse at the Bay Oval, New Zealand had stand-in skipper Tom Latham and Will Young adding 148 runs for the first wicket.
Latham was then joined by Conway and together the duo put on another 201 runs for the second wicket till the close of play. Conway, who had scored a hundred in the last Test, added another 109 to his career tally, while Latham went on to post a gigantic 252.
The Kiwis finished on Monday with an insurmountable 521/6 dec before building inroads into Bangladesh batting.
“A massive part of it was to do the basics well and right for a long period of time. We did it quite well at the Mount [Maunganui] but we let ourselves down in periods that brought Bangladesh back into the game. We did it for the whole day today. The guys were amazing,”
Ronchi was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Ronchi revealed one of their important strategies was to go after the spinners in the Bangladesh attack, especially off-spinner Mehidy Hasan, who was one of the heroes of the visitors’ historic win last game.
Young Mehidy, who is still developing, bowled marathon spells of 3/86 & 1/43 to keep his end tight and allow the pacers to come back fresh every time.
“We also put pressure on to their spin bowling. In the last game, we let them bowl a bit too much. Today, there was a bit of emphasis on putting him [Mehidy Hasan Miraz] under pressure so that they bring on the quick bowlers back a bit more. It worked quite nicely for us today.”
Ronchi said.
