Pitch became harder: Guptill

Guptill scored a quickfire 33 off 20 balls but Indian bowlers kept a tight leash on theBlack Cap restricting them for 132 and then reaching the target in only 17.3 overs.

“We certainly felt that the pitch was getting slower and slower when we were batting. It got harder and harder to bat as the game progressed. We needed one of the top three-four to bat majority of the innings. We weren’t able to get partnerships to add up the total,” Guptill told reporters after his team lost second successive T20 International.

The surface was slower compared to the first game where New Zealand scored 203. “It was a slightly different wicket. Earlier on, it was coming nicely. Colin (Munro) and I were offto a reasonable start. We lost momentum thereafter the sixth over, and we had to sort of rebuild from there,” he said.

The target was not a tough one to chase down admitted Guptill. “We probably knew we were light on runs. But we had to try and defend that, and get early wickets upfront. Thought the bowlers did well in the front six overs, we needed more wickets after Virat got out. Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul batted very well and we were not able to break that partnership,” he added.

Guptill and Colin Munro put up 48 for the opening stand after 80 in the first game. “Our role in the team is to be aggressive and we go out there to do that. One of us would have been good to bat 15 overs to set the innings up and have guys bat around us. It was not supposed to be today and we have time to try to do that in the next game and do a better performance,” he added.

When asked what total would have been optimal on such a slow wicket, he replied, “I thought maybe 170 would have been alright. But obviously we were way off. India bowled very well tonight and bowled asstraight as possible. There were a lot of dot balls tonight and that impacted our innings.”

Guptill was all praise for Jasprit Bumrah’s versatility at the death. “Lot of swing and misses. We were trying but wewere facing one of the best death bowlers in the world (Jasprit Bumrah). It is tough to get him away at the end.”

The opener felt that India once again out-batted it on a difficult track. “They played very well, as hard as they did the other night. Guptill further added.