New Zealand vs India 2020: Hanuma Vihari says batsmen's errors were mostly behind India's wickets

On a supposedly green wicket, India were put in to bat by New Zealand in the second Test in Christchurch, with the visitors managing to score 242 runs before being all out.

In reply, the Kiwis did not lose any wicket and scored 63 runs. Hanuma Vihari later accepted that the pitch played better than what the Indians had thought it would and it was the visiting batsmen who played false strokes.

That's Stumps on Day 1 on the 2nd Test. Fifties by Prithvi, Pujara and Vihari earlier today took #TeamIndia to a 1st innings total of 242New Zealand: 63/0 trail India by 179 runs. #NZvINDScorecard 👉👉 https://t.co/VTLQt4iEFz pic.twitter.com/AD2dYrUems

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 29, 2020

Vihari said after the end of day's play:

"Yes, obviously as the pitch didn't do as much as we expected. All dismissals happened at the wrong time. None of the dismissals were because of the pitch. Mostly it was because of batsmen's error. Pitch was fair."

Prithvi Shaw played a good innings of 54 runs but his dismissal was followed by a flurry of big wickets like Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. Cheteshwar Pujara and Vihari, who looked in sublime touch as he was scoring at a brisk pace, had taken the total to 194-4.

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However, in the last over before Tea, he tried to guide a short ball by Neil Wagner to fine leg but only managed to glove it to BJ Watling. This dismissal was the start of a batting collapse that saw six wickets fall for just 48 runs. Vihari added:

"It was a wrong time to get out obviously just before tea as we had a good session. We scored 110 runs and lost only one wicket prior to that. I was batting positively but I played one shot too many."

It remains to be seen if India manage to take any sort of a first-innings lead by dismissing New Zealand cheaply tomorrow.