Work to be done in our batting: Ganguly

“He’s awesome, and the way he bowled today was just phenomenal,” Stephen Fleming told reporters.

India captain Sourav Ganguly said, “He won the game for them… He’s their main bowler, and we have to find a way not to give him wickets.”

“It’s nice to have those sort of figures, especially when the team wins, and today was awesome,” Bond said.

Bond’s previous best return of 6-23 against Australia in a 2003 World Cup match in Port Elizabeth was also the Black Caps’ best. “But then an astonishing spell by Shane Bond gave us some belief for a very good win in the end.”

Ganguly was confident that his team’s performance would improve as the tournament continued. ‘‘There is work to be done in our batting as there is lot of cricket left in the tournament,’’ he said.

“We fought back well at the end, and JP and Pathan put on an outstanding partnership, but we couldn’t get the runs.

“We can take heart from the way we fought back and the way we bowled, and I’m sure the batting’s just going to get better. When you’re 44-8, that sums up everything. But we showed a lot of fight in the end and we got close.”

He said the pitch had something for the bowlers if they pitched it in the right areas also giving credit to the Indian seamers who had made life difficult for the New Zealand batsmen in the morning.

Fleming praised his speed merchant Bond who, he said, gave the team the belief after a none-too-impressive batting display.

“We were pretty much down and out at lunch but Shane gave us the lift and life to come back strongly.”

He admitted that New Zealand “sat back too much” to allow Pathan and Yadav to put on a good partnership.