New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra credited his ability to adapt to conditions in Rawalpindi for making his century against Bangladesh look effortless. In his comeback match from injury, Ravindra found the perfect balance between timing and aggression against a strong Bangladesh bowling attack.
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00:00So, New Zealand have come to Pakistan and have obliterated all hopes.
00:06So you won both matches in the tri-series, then the Champions Trophy opener, like you're
00:12getting a party popper's tag.
00:16And today of course the support was for Bangladesh, mostly because, of course, for obvious reasons.
00:20So do you think now that you're through, you'll get the support from the crowd going ahead
00:26into the tournament?
00:27Yeah, I'm not sure.
00:29Obviously we've been lucky enough to play some good cricket and playing the way we like
00:33to play and got ourselves in winning positions.
00:36Yeah, I mean, I think the crowd's pretty good to us.
00:39I think wherever we go we have some great support and we're very grateful even the fans
00:43back home.
00:44It's always nice to get their voice and support, but I don't know, I think it's just great
00:48to have a good crowd every time we play cricket and definitely elevates the atmosphere of
00:52each game.
00:54First of all, congratulations on a match-winning century and qualifying for the semi-finals.
01:02Thank you, thank you.
01:03Good day, good series.
01:05At a time, there were three down and Sheikhy and you handled the innings.
01:11What was in mind?
01:13Yeah, I guess for us it was a little bit of a tricky weekend at times, sort of held a
01:17little bit in there.
01:20They bowled some good stuff at times and kept us sort of dotted up, but Tommy's a great
01:25man to bat with.
01:26He's got so much experience.
01:27He's captained the team before and he's played so much cricket and get along with them really
01:31well.
01:32So for us it was just about building our partnership and trying to take it deep.
01:36I guess the beauty of chasing 240 is you don't really need to push the accelerator too much
01:40on good wickets and fast outfields.
01:42So for us it was just playing good cricket shots and trying to work together in little
01:45five-run blocks.
01:47Hi.
01:48How do you see Bresfield bowling today?
01:51He really struck the Bangladesh batters and the next match is yours against India.
01:57So how do you rate this?
01:59It will be a very close competition.
02:01Yeah, beastly ball out of his skin.
02:04I think the development of him as a cricketer over the last few years has been amazing to
02:08watch.
02:09Being able to play with him way back in the day when Wellington, sort of five, six years
02:14ago and seeing him develop is amazing.
02:17He's learning his craft so well and seeing him be so consistent as he is recently is
02:21amazing and gives so much depth to our spinner tech, obviously led by Sat, who's a world-class
02:25bowler, one of the best in the world.
02:27Having someone like Mike to supplement him in that is great.
02:31Looking ahead to the India challenge, it's always going to be difficult playing in there,
02:34but we see it's a bit of a slow wicket and our spinners have been bowling really well.
02:38So hopefully we can execute that.
02:44Rachin, this is Maharush from BD Cricket.
02:46My question is, as I'm from Bangladesh, unfortunately Bangladesh lost the match.
02:51My question is, Bangladeshi pace are improving a lot in recent times.
02:55So you played Raheem Zahra today.
02:56How good is he?
02:57Yeah, for sure.
02:58I mean, seeing Bangladesh bowling stocks is cool and seeing that you see the Fizz and
03:04Tuscan have played a lot of cricket and now Raheem Zahra coming in, I think he's a very
03:08good talent, very good bowler.
03:10It's my first time playing him today.
03:12He's very young too and he's definitely got a bit of bound and bowls quite quickly.
03:15So I'm excited to see him develop and hopefully we get to play against him in the future quite a bit.
03:22Hi Rachin.
03:23If you could just take us through over the last couple of weeks, it's been quite a stressful
03:27time for you.
03:28How was the whole recovery period and how did you keep yourself motivated?
03:34Yeah, definitely a freak accident.
03:37Things like that don't really happen too often.
03:39I'm very grateful to have a great support crew around me in terms of the Black Caps
03:43setup, coaches and doc and physio that have been able to come out of it reasonably well
03:48and I'm extremely grateful for the love and support of everyone.
03:52I've been showered in so much care and love and it really does make me seriously happy
03:57knowing how many people care about me and I'm very grateful to everyone who's reached
04:02out and given their support.
04:03So thank you for that.
04:04Yeah, it's obviously been interesting dealing with the return to play protocols and stuff
04:08but like I said, having the support around me has been great and being able to come here
04:12and contribute to a win for the Black Caps, an environment that I hold dearly and I enjoy
04:17so much playing for and it was cool to come back and really enjoy my cricket again after
04:22that weird moment.
04:25Just on Breslau's bowling, do you think his middle of the bowling when he put three right
04:31hand batsmen, Vidal, Mourad and Smosh in three weeks, was that 100%?
04:38Oh 100%.
04:40I mean Bangladesh started really well in the power play.
04:42I think the way those two openers batted and sort of kept that tempo going, we were put
04:49under the pump a wee bit on a good wicket and the way Beastie came on and put the choke
04:54hold on and bowled good balls and consistently put the ball in areas was amazing.
04:59Like I said before, he's developed his bowling so much and to see his consistency come through
05:03is great and even bowling to his right handers, we know how difficult it is in today's game
05:08to bowl, that's not necessarily a match up, right?
05:10But the way he bowled, his consistency, his ability to change the pace on a pretty good
05:14wicket, especially in the daytime was special and hopefully he can keep doing his thing.
05:19Hi Rachan, you made the batting look so so simple, was it that easy in the middle?
05:25I don't know if I made it look simple, I think there are definitely times where I struggled
05:30for timing, they strung dot balls, they bowled really well, didn't give any width and balls
05:35to score off but I think it's the beauty of batting and one day cricket especially, you
05:39go through ebbs and flows over a long period of time.
05:41I mean with T20 you sort of go and have a bash and if it works out great, if it doesn't
05:46it's all good but in the longer formats it goes sort of like this and you have periods
05:50of being able to score freely, you have periods where you don't and I was able to lean on
05:54Tommy a lot through those periods and we kept each other accountable and knowing what our
05:58options are but I guess the beauty of the way I try bats is hit good cricket shots,
06:02get into good positions and then hopefully they miss a wee bit and I'll be able to hit
06:06my gaps so just trying not to force the ball, maybe that's why it looked a bit simple
06:11but it definitely is not simple when you're out there.
06:16Thanks everyone.
06:17Thanks guys.