Stuart Broad hails team for series fightback |
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Tuesday March 25, 01:50 PM
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By Greg Stutchbury
NAPIER, New Zealand (Reuters) - England's Stuart Broad praised his team mates for battling back from a 1-0 deficit in the test series against New Zealand to close in on victory after the fourth day of the third test on Tuesday.
England, who lost the first test by 189 runs and won the second by 126 runs, reduced New Zealand to 222 for five chasing 553 for victory at the end of play at Napier's McLean Park.
Ross Taylor (34) and Brendon McCullum (24) will resume on Wednesday to try and bat out a minimum of 90 overs to try and save the match, or score the 331 runs required to pull off an improbable victory.
"To obviously win a test match series away is very hard," Broad told reporters. "It'll be magic and the squad know that, so they will come out tomorrow fighting.
"Going 1-0 down was tough but we have showed a lot of character to come back and be in this position -- five wickets to win a test match and a series.
"We'll come back tomorrow fresh and strong and try to do that."
Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, who scored 66 and was the second wicket of three to fall for just 13 runs after tea when his side had been in a solid position, admitted the final day's play would be tough for the home side.
"Unfortunately, losing four wickets in a session has set us back...it would've been a long stronger if we hadn't lost four wickets.
"But we're still going to fight hard, we're still going to make England work damn hard for those wickets," Fleming said.
"We've still got some batting to come but we've got our backs against the wall."
Fleming praised Taylor and McCullum for seeing out the final hour without losing any further wickets.
He said New Zealand had not contemplated chasing the victory target, until they got to the final session on the fifth day with wickets in hand.
"You don't even think about chasing 500 until you get to possibly the last session," he said.
"If you're in some sort of position with wickets in hand then you look at it and then still probably shut up shop.
"After one poor session we placed the pressure firmly back on ourselves and haven't been able to shake it.
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