Kirsten advocates 'balancing act'

AHMEDABAD: India coach Gary Kirsten feels the Indian batsmen could risk digging a hole for themselves if they bat too defensively. Excerpts from a media interaction...
On the team’s chances of saving the game: The bottomline is that we need to bat for 80 per cent of the day. As long as the guys understand that and confront the situation, we can do it.
On India’s gameplan: I think the quicker we get past the deficit, the better. It’s bit of a mix and match, we don’t want to dig ourselves into a hole by playing too defensively. At the same time, you don’t want to take too much risk. A bit of a balancing act will be necessary.
On the pitch: The pitch hasn’t taken as much turn as expected. For the seamers too it has been tough, there hasn’t been much reverse swing. To be honest so far it has turned to be a fantastic batting wicket, the kind where batsmen lick their lips and score big hundreds. Hopefully the wicket will hold the way it has over the past four days.
On Mahela Jayawardene’s double ton: As I said, conditions were tough for the bowlers, but the Lankans deserve credit for the way they batted. Once Mahela got his hundred, we knew he would go on to make a big one.
On the first-day collapse: The big thing in a Test match is the first session, and we came up short.