Napier, March 27: On a high after scoring a double century in only his eighth Test, Jesse Ryder is keeping his feet firmly on the ground. The burly allrounder is a man of few words and believes in his bat doing the talking.

"I can’t ask for anything more at this stage of my career. It has been quite sensational for me. Everything seems to be working for me," Ryder said after second day’s play.

The 24-year-old kept it simple when asked about the thrill of being the highest scorer at Napier. "It’s a good feeling. I just went out there and stuck to my game plan and that worked for me. The double is really big."

Talking about his marathon innings, he said it felt "good out there. I haven’t been so long out there in my life."

The knock is special since it has come against India. "It is a great experience. They are a world class team and to play against them has been great. When I was growing up I watched them pretty much all my life. To play against them now is great," Ryder said.

Given his destructive form, asked if it now felt like daylight robbery to be picked by the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL for a mere $150,000, Ryder burst out laughing before saying, "I’ll take it."

However, he was happy with the Kiwi team effort. "The boys came out and bowled pretty well and put us on top of the game."

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Like father like son

Brendon McCullum and Sachin Tendulkar may be in opposing teams but they were batting together at the McLean Park Stadium in Napier on Friday. Obviously, not the big men, but a couple of kids just outside the boundary line.

One of them happened to be Brendon McCullum’s four-and-a-half-year-old son Riley, who was batting with an Indian friend who had christened himself Tendulkar. The ‘McCullum-Tendulkar’ pair kept batted without getting separated, occasionally raising their bats to acknowledge warm applause from their friends on the imaginary century and double century stands.

But Riley, wearing a replica of New Zealand’s ODI shirt with his surname and his father’s No.42 inscribed at the back, impressed with his eye-hand coordination as he hardly got beaten playing with a smaller version of his dad’s bat, Puma. He’s left-handed, "like his paternal grandfather and likes pure hitting like his father," McCullum’s wife Ellissa told this correspondent.

It’s all play for Riley. "He will go to school from July. At matches, he plays all day at the ground but while at home, it’s only on Saturdays," Ellissa said.

— K. Moses