Hyderabad, Nov 15:New Zealand's Ross Taylor admitted on Sunday that Harbhajan Singh foiled the Kiwi plan of bowling short deliveries and took the visitors by surprise on Day 3 of the second Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Speaking to newsmen, Taylor said that nobody would have believed that Harbhajan will go on and outscore Virender Sehwag after three innings.

Excerpts:

On the third day's play:

It was one of those days where you’ll take the first five hours. The last hour was just disappointing. You’ve got to give it to Harbhajan, who once again batted very well. He was well supported by Sreesanth. It would have been a very good day if we were only 20 or 30 behind and had a bit of a bat tonight. Hopefully, we can come out, get the early wicket tomorrow, and bat the rest of the day.

On Harbhajan Singh:

With the short boundary straight, Harbhajan just hurt us. What would have been pretty good balls to most batsmen, he was hitting for six. He’s taken two fifties and a hundred off us, and our plans will have to be revised.

On Harbhajan foiling the New Zealand short-ball strategy:

One of the plans was to bowl short, but the short ball seemed to go a long way today. He has obviously improved his batting. After three innings, no one would have believed that he’d have nearly as many runs as Sehwag. It is not that we did not have any game-plan for him but sometimes you just cannot have any control over a situation.

On team India's lead:

Well, we are obviously looking to restrict the Indian lead to below 150 so as to have a decent chance to be back in the game.

On New Zealand's ground fielding:

We always took great pride in our fielding, an area we can control. Brendon, Williamson and Guptill were outstanding in the field.

On Daniel Vettori's bowling performance

He has been doing that for a long time, being the only frontline spinner.