New Zealand pacer Matt Henry said India’s familiarity with the conditions here helped them pick a suitable bowling unit as their spin quartet, particularly Varun Chakravarthy, kept his side under constant pressure during the Champions Trophy match. India, who are playing all their matches in Dubai, fielded Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel against the Kiwis on Sunday during their 44-run victory in the final Group A match. “I think, obviously, the way to have four frontline spinners was a really effective way to play. I think having that luxury of knowing (conditions)…they played to the conditions beautifully. That was probably the challenge for us,” Henry said in the post-match press conference.
“We knew that they were going to play the four spinners. They bowled beautifully. They read the situation and the conditions well. Yeah, unfortunately, we couldn’t get across the line.” Chakravarthy was the most impressive among the four spinners, taking a five-wicket haul (5/42) as India set up a semifinal clash with Australia.
“He (Chakravarthy) bowled beautifully, didn’t he? I think he showed his skill, the way he turned the ball both ways, he could bowl pace. They were able to put us under pressure right throughout,” Henry said.
“He extracted turn and pace and he just, to be on a match winning performance like that, to be able to create pressure and I suppose that’s what they did in tandem.” However, Henry was delighted to see New Zealand pacers putting India under pressure early, and he wants to replicate that against South Africa in the semifinals.
India were reeling at 30 for three at one stage before Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel mounted a rescue act.
“I think the key is adapting. It’s something we talk about as a fast-bowling group — reading conditions and trying to get the opposition to take tough options (to score) and we managed to do that even in the power play here,” he said.
“I think if we can keep doing that, we can take wickets. If you can take wickets throughout, especially throughout that middle, it makes a massive difference at the back end.
“Moving forward, we’ll take our learning from here and we’ll apply them back in Lahore (vs SA).”
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