Losing wickets in clumps cost us: Tom Latham

With teammates losing their way after he and Martin Guptill had produced the first century opening partnership in the three-Test series against India, Tom Latham was hopeful of a better show from the New Zealand batsmen in the second innings of the final Test here.

“It’s (the pitch at Holkar Stadium) obviously deteriorating and turning more. We weren’t at our best today, lost wickets that we weren’t happy with. Hopefully we can rectify that in second innings,” said Latham who made 53 out of the New Zealand first innings tally of 299 and also posted a stand of 118 with Guptill, who top scored with 72.

New Zealand are staring down the barrel after conceding a big first innings deficit of 258 to India who made a mammoth 557/5 declared. “It’s certainly starting to turn, lot of footmarks. Not cracking up so much but there are dust and footmarks for bowlers to work with. They’ll be targeting those in the second innings so got to find a way of rectifying that,” he said.

Latham blamed the cluster of wickets that New Zealand lost in the post-lunch session as the main cause for the team’s predicament in the final game of the series which India have already secured.

“Me and Gup (Guptill) built a partnership chasing such a big total. Unfortunately we lost wickets in clumps,” he said. “It was not our day through the middle of innings, hard to start on that wicket. Unfortuna-tely our guys couldn’t get in. But (we have) massive chance to do so in second innings.”

Latham hailed the bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin, who grabbed 6/81 that included a spell of three wickets in 13 balls, and Jadeja, who picked up two wickets. “They are world class especially in their own conditions, bowled lot of overs, and took wickets. We’ve got a big couple of days and when we get a chance with the bat, got to put partnerships together.”