Quite surprised to see grass on the wicket Luke Ronchi

On the second day of the second Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, New Zealand were reduced to 128 for 7, with their top three accounting for just 15 runs. Luke Ronchi, who scored 35 along with Ross Taylor (36), defied the Indian bowlers with a fighting 62-run stand, but, on Saturday (October 1), it was the hosts that took the honours.

Excerpts from Luke Ronchi's post-match press conference.

Situation with the light?

I'm assuming it was exactly the same case as it was yesterday. I think the umpires, when it gets to a certain point of light level or reading or whatever it is, that's sort of like the starting point for when seamers can bowl and when the spinners have to bowl, when you have the option. Whatever it was, it was the umpire's decision really.

So you continue playing in whatever (light reading) was better than when it was called off yesterday?

Yesterday we had the option of bowling spin. We chose not to. This evening India chose to bowl a couple of overs of spin before the umpires intervened and said, now it's getting darker, or too dark to play..

Ross seemed to suggest that he couldn't spot the ball

That's just it. People react anyway when they get out. There's nothing we could do about it.

It's still the same. It is the umpire's decision really. There's nothing we can do about it. We could say something and make the umpires have a look at it. In the end of it all, it is the umpire's decision. So we go with whatever they are saying.

New Zealand are in a bad shape...thoughts?

Yeah. Is there a question? That's a statement.

We are 7 down for nearly not nearly as many runs as we want to be. But it's cricket. These things happen. We just have to come back tomorrow, scrap as hard as possible, get as many runs and see what happens from there. Try to bowl India out again. Try to chase whatever we are set or try to bat as long to eke out a draw. It's cricket. We didn't play as well as we wanted to today. But it's one day out of five days so if we can play better after this day...

What was Bhuvneshwar doing right?

I think it's a combination of everything. This wicket, especially the new ball, is a big thing. It does a few more things. The bounce is a little unpredictable with a harder ball and obviously it swings around and things like that. And later on he came back to bowl in nice lines to hit the stumps, to get LBW and nicking of Ross in just the area where you make the batsman play pretty much. I think that's the main thing. Make the batsman play and make decisions that he wanted and that we didn't want. So he bowled really well.

Is that something New Zealand pacers learnt from watching him?

I think we bowled quite well with the new ball ourselves anyway. I think Matt Henry did a fantastic job in getting some early wickets. Boulty was getting some good pace and swing going. I guess on early on the first day we got the wickets that we were after. I guess we didn't get the big clumps as India have taken today. But I also think our seam bowlers did a fantastic job.

Tail scored runs.. bowling plans for specialists and tail?

No. Well they shouldn't. Because India bat very deep and they have got batsmen the whole way down that can make runs. So realistically we got to bowl the same to every person. Jadeja coming in at 8 or 9, he's a dangerous player to have there. Bhuvneshwar, he can bat as well. We just have to make sure whatever plans are, we stick to them and not get frustrated if we are hit for some boundaries, or if they stick around for a length of time. We just have to stay nice and relaxed and hope that what we think is the right plan will work. And if we execute them, we can get them out.

That happened today?

Not as much as you want them to. Obviously they have been making runs toward the end that are making the difference. Today, they were 240 overnight and 300 whatever. That's a big chunk of runs from the last three wickets. So that's something we have to improve on to stay in this Test or win the series going forward. So hopefully tomorrow we can do the same thing with our tail. Make some runs and those will be very valuable runs in the situation.

Pace a huge factor...surprise?

I think a lot of us were quite surprised on seeing the grass on the wicket. I think spinners haven't turned it as much. I guess a lot of people wouldn't have expected the seamers to take as many wickets as they have through the Test. But it's Test cricket. You got to learn from that. You got to play the right balls, do the right things. I guess we haven't done that as well as we could have.

300 - psychological advantage?

I don't think so. 300 on that wicket I think is still a par score. I think India would have wanted more than that. A few guys were batting really well and then they got out. And then unfortunately we didn't bat as well as we should have. Obviously they bowled well. I think from a batting standpoint, we should have made more runs or not lost as many wickets at this point of game. But when they got to 300 I think 300 is still a decent score. I guess if they won the toss and batted first, you'd be pretty happy with 300. So I dont think it made much of a difference to our mindset. We didn't bat as well as we would have liked today.

Umpiring decisions..

Its cricket. I think I got away with one against Jadeja today. You can't complain. It's going to happen lot of times. You get some good ones, you gonna get away with some. You just turn up and keep going along. Keep staying positive and hit the ball like you want to hit the ball and stuff like that. Get as many runs as possible. That's how it goes.