Undermining the power of the opposition teams have drowned many great teams and many great players in past. Same is the situation with the Nez Zealand who came into the game with the same mindset, as a result, now they are in balance and has an equal chance of losing the game to second string Mumbai team. Losing two early wickets on two weak balls have strengthened Mumbai chances in the game and few more wickets in quick succession can be a big blow for the visitors.
After conceding a lead of 140 runs to Mumbai, New Zealand sent Luke Ronchi and Martin Guptill to open the innings for them. Luke Ronchi stood there facing a great first over from Sandhu who was teasing him outswingers but Ronchi decided not to get carried away. A surprise awaited Guptill at the other end as captain Aditya Tare handed ball to the spinner Vishal Dabholkar knowing Guptill’s mentality, Guptill was trapped in the rattrap as he could not control his emotions and went after the ball spinning away from him, the red spherical object took a thick edge of his bat landing safely in hands of Surya Kumar Yadav at first slip.
Mitchell Santner, the succeeding batsmen too fell in the plot running out of his crease to go big but later finding that he hasn’t made any contact with the bat. The realisation came when only the bails were on the ground as wicketkeeper Sufiyan Shaikh had already done his job. Captain decided to reverse the batting order and sent Doug Bracewell to play few overs before lunch. Looked like Bracewell was taught the art of batting in the dressing room as he controlled himself and provided support to opener Luke Ronchi who is batting on 41*. New Zealand stands 62/2 in 15 overs at Lunch.
Earlier in the day, the Mumbai army batted for 11ovrs waiting for Siddhesh Lad to complete his century, declaration came the moment he raised his bat in after accomplishing the task. Mumbai was 140 runs ahead of New Zealand when they decided to declare.
New Zealand is still trailing by 78 runs with 8 wickets in hands. The next session will clearly tell if the match goes till 4:30 P.M. or the players shake hands after the completion of mandatory overs.