India batter Shreyas Iyer believes that he was happy with his performance in the first Test against New Zealand but would have felt better if Indian had won the match. He added that his mindset was about playing as many balls as possible. Iyer was the player of the match as India and New Zealand played out a thrilling draw for scoring 105 and 65 on debut.
"It's a great feeling but winning the game would have been icing on the cake. You can still see that the pitch was intact but our bowlers showed great fight," said Iyer in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Talking about his batting in both innings, Iyer said, "My mindset was to play the sessions and play as many balls as possible. People say I am a very flamboyant player but the situation required me to play longer. So, I played for the time. Enjoyed batting with Ashwin and Saha."
Asked about his overall assessment of India's performance, who were separated from a win by just one wicket, Iyer remarked, "I am really proud of the way we came out from a difficult position. I am really happy with the overall performance of the team. The pressure is always there, they had a great start and played out the first two sessions really well. But once we got a sniff and got quick wickets, we made the best use of the situation."
With the series at 0-0, both India and New Zealand have the chance to win the series in the second Test at Mumbai, starting from Thursday.