Nagpur, Nov 20:New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori on Saturday credited India for pushing the visitors on the backfoot on Day 1 of the third and final Test. Vettori said that his team will try to fight it out tomorrow and then bowl out India cheaply.

Excerpts from the press conference:

On the New Zealand collapse:

Apart from myself, it was not like the guys got themselves out. They bowled well, the spin was slow but it's no 147 for 7 wicket. We have to scrap hard tomorrow and put as many runs as possible and try to bowl as well as they did.

On Brendon McCullum's injury in the morning:

I was walking out for the toss when I saw one of my players going down. Some one ran up to him and said hold on look what is happening. I went over and saw Brendon who has a history of back spasms; they normally take a day to heal, but because he is such an important player we took the chance. We still hoped that he could open but that wasn’t to be. We wanted to bat out the day and have him come out in the middle order but unfortunately that didn’t happen. He was pretty brave enough to come out and bat under heavy medication and play the way he did.

On his decision to bat first knowing McCullum’s injury:

No the nature of the wicket was to bat first. We were pretty confident that Brendon will come out to bat tomorrow and bat and run normally. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. HE still showed what a quality player he is to come out and play so well. It wasn’t a hard decision at the toss.

You have to give credit to India; they bowled well and hit the right areas. We have to learn quickly. The feedback is that it is no 400-500 run wicket. If we can scrap hard tomorrow and then take early wickets we can put the pressure back on India. There's still lot of cricket left in the game.

On the delay in start due to the wet outfield:

With the rain coming around, the sun never sees that part of the ground. It was going to be difficult. It was basically difficult there. The umpires and groundstaff did everything they could do.

On Ryder’s injury:

Same leg injury as the last Test, strained. He showed what a quality player he is. He may field, he may not, tomorrow.