By RICHARD BOOCK
New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming still believes he made the right choice in putting Pakistan in to bat in the first cricket test.
An hour after the tourists scored a runaway 299-run win over New Zealand at Eden Park, Fleming insisted he had given his team their best chance of winning the match when he opted to bowl first after winning the toss on Thursday.
Batting last on a pitch which was always destined to turn, NZ finished on a depressing 131 in their second innings yesterday, losing their last eight wickets for 10 runs as Pakistan went 1-0 up in the series.
Fleming said it was not fair to consider the issue in hindsight. He said his decision to bowl first might have succeeded had NZ accepted their chances on the first day.
After actually complaining about how difficult it was to bat last on the turning pitch, he said the difference had been the Pakistan bowling attack and the fact that NZ had not converted their healthy position midway through the opening day.
"We also had to look at winning the game," he said of his decision at the toss. "The best chance for us to win was to bowl first and have first use of the pitch. That seemed reasonably justified when we had them four for 138.
"We had our chances. If you dismiss the opposition for 200 you're pretty happy, and we were on track at one stage. We didn't convert our position. We didn't do the job well enough on the first day - you can't blame the track.
"I asked the guys to bowl them out and they didn't. I take a little bit of responsibility for that, but certainly not for the loss we suffered."
Cricket: Fleming: I made the right decision
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