JOFRA ARCHER on his race abuse ordeal

‘I know what I heard. I thought members of the crowd might have pulled the guy up’

The first thing I want to say about what happened towards the end of the Test at Mount Maunganui is that I’m over it. I’ve left what happened at the ground and I’ve moved on. I should also say it was just one person who was shouting stuff.

But I found the incident a real shame. When you come to another country, you half expect fans to have a go at your cricket. If someone wants to shout at me and tell me I’m bowling badly, that’s fine. I may not agree but it’s fine. It’s part of the experience of being a touring cricketer.

To hear racism, though — that’s another matter. There is no time or place for it in any walk of life, let alone cricket. It’s just not called for.

I don’t want to go into the details of what was said but I know what I heard. I thought members of the crowd around the guy might have pulled him up because I could hear him from the pitch as I was walking off. I guess they didn’t. But I know I wasn’t hearing stuff. I told the security guard what had happened and that was it.

Now my only goal is to make sure we finish this series on a high because we were all disappointed with the result in the first Test.

Yes, we should have batted longer in the first innings but I can honestly say I don’t think there’s much more we could have done after that.

I was expecting it to be tough bowling on a flat pitch with the Kookaburra ball but it probably turned out to be even tougher than I’d feared.

I also think they batted on the best days of the game. even when BJ Watling and Mitchell Santner had their partnership, we never let them hurt us: it was two and a bit an over.

They did really well, exactly what their team wanted, but we were pleased they never got away from us in terms of run-rate. We were in the field for 201 overs but no one mumbled, no one groaned. The team is in a good space right now, even after we were pushed mentally to breaking point.

I try not to read the media but I guess there’s been some talk about my bowling. I did as good as I could: I sent down 42 overs and went at 2.5 in unhelpful conditions. I know I’ve never bowled more than 30 in an innings before but I felt fine. I could have bowled again the next day.

I have to accept people are going to be looking at my speeds. I thought I was bowling quicker than the speedgun suggested.

I pretty much know what speed I usually bowl at and at one point I bowled a normal ball and it came up at 120- something kilometres per hour, which is less than 80mph. That didn’t seem right.

I know Joe used me in short bursts at the start but that was mainly because we were trying to find the right ends for each bowler.

The wind made it difficult to work out, so there was a bit of shuffling around. he also wanted to keep everyone fresh. The sun was hot, the pitch was flat and it didn’t make sense for anyone other than Jack Leach to bowl a long spell.

Sure, we didn’t think we’d be in the field for as long as we were but I appreciated what Joe was trying to do.

It’s also not the case that he just wanted me to bowl short. You adapt to conditions and to the batsman. Watling scored 200 and played about two pull shots. Other times the captain asks you to aim for the knee roll. It’s not one gameplan that you stick to whatever happens.

Someone told me what Joe said about me not knowing how good I can be. I guess it’s nice to know my team-mates all think highly of me. I’ll be giving it another crack at hamilton.

The one thing I was a bit disappointed about was my batting at the end. It was nice to show people what I can do, because I didn’t get many opportunities to score runs in the Ashes, but I felt I left a few out there and I didn’t really need to play the shot I got out to.

I know the game wasn’t lost on day five but I just thought that me and Sam were doing well enough to at least take it to 5.30. And if we were in at 5.30 who knows what could have happened. If Watling and Santner were able to bat 89 overs, who’s to say we couldn’t have done something?

New Zealand played really well and deserved their victory. And I guess if Watling gets in again at hamilton, we’ll just have to bore him out. Next time I hope the luck is on our side.