Kyle Jamieson was short of words, he stuttered a bit, maybe in search of words for what he had achieved in such a young career of his. becoming Man of the Match in the greatest Test match ever to be played in the game of cricket is after all no mean feat. But when he did speak, his voice was as confident as his spell in the first innings.
“To have something of this context in Test cricket is massive, and to be standing up here is surreal,” said the six-foot eight-inch framed man who swings the ball like a feather. Jamieson, who picked up his fifth five-wicket haul in only his eighth Test, was pleased with his skipper showing great confidence in him. “It was nice to get the ball first up and to play a part, I guess,” he said on his first innings performance while speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony at Southampton.
While in the first innings it was his 5-31 that lifted the team, in the second innings, he did an even exceptional job, removing the Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara in the first hour of play on the last day of the match to give his team the advantage.
“We knew we had a big first hour, and just to see how things panned out. We were hoping they might pan out our way if we put the ball in the right place, but we knew this is a quality Indian team as well,’ he said.
Modesty is the name of the game it seems in New Zealand. Even the 26-year-old Jameison was modest enough to credit his senior fast bowlers Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner for all his achievements “The work that Tim, Trent, Wags do, I just ride in on the back of that,” he said.
Talking about removing the opposition skipper and arguably the best batsman in the world right now, Virat Kohli in both the innings, Jamieson said he was thrilled to have done that.