Pragyan Ojha Happy to Open the Bowling, Expects Pitch to Help Batsmen

Pragyan Ojha admitted the Bangalore pitch was a little different from the one at Hyderabad, with the left-arm spinner predicting some big runs to be scored by his team.

Ojha finished the opening day with figures of four for 90, as the Kiwis ended their day on 328 for six, thanks to a splendid hundred from Ross Taylor.

On the first over of the day, it was neither Zaheer Khan nor Umesh Yadav, who opened the bowling, with Ojha given the responsibility, as India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni looked to exploit the little bit of moisture that was on the pitch.

"Immediately after the toss, Dhoni Bhai told me that I was going to open the bowling and I was quite ready for it," Ojha told reporters.

"I just went in with a blank mind. I didn't want to think about too many things. I knew the new ball wasn't going to grip. The best option was to be disciplined and bowl a straight line so that the batsman has to play every ball."

Unlike the first Test in Hyderabad, where New Zealand struggled against the spinners, the visitors at the Chinnaswamy stadium, made use of a better pitch to take the attack to the slower bowlers. "I thought it was a good first-day track," Ojha said. "On a wicket, which wasn't doing much for the spinners, their game plan was to be aggressive.

"Ross Taylor played very well. But nevertheless, we got six wickets on the first day.

"We cannot predict how the wicket will behave for the remaining days. But there was some turn if you bowled slow.

"Also, currently it looks a good batting track, which means our batsmen will get us a lot of runs."

Kiwi opener Martin Guptill, who scored 53, was disappointed to get a start and not make full use of it. "It's a little bit frustrating," Guptill said. "But that's the way cricket goes.

"Sometimes you can get going and get a big score and other times you get out when you're half way there. It is frustrating and something that I'm really trying to rectify in the next few Test matches.

Guptill admitted coming out and trying to dominate the bowling was something that was discussed before the start of the match. "We always wanted to come out with a bit of positive intent," he said. "We got some bad balls and also Ross made some strides with his footwork.

"And when you're doing that, you're putting pressure on the bowlers and get bad balls. We were lucky enough to get a few today, and put them to the fence.

"When a player like Ross starts going like that, it makes it a lot easier on the other batsmen. It takes a bit of pressure off them. Ross is a world-class player and some of the shots he played today were really special."