India’s premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin showered praise on New Zealand’s fast bowling in the second innings of the first Test match at Basin Reserve, Wellington. In fact, there wasn’t much assistance for the fast bowlers on Day three but the hosts’ bowlers bowled their hearts out. The Kiwis pacers had two plans up in their sleeve and tested Indian batsmen to the core.
Trent Boult was the pick of New Zealand as the southpaw pacer scalped three out of the four Indian wickets. Boult got the first wicket when he targetted Shaw in the rib area and the Indian opener got himself in an awkward position. Shaw could not keep his flick to the ground and Tom Latham took a fine catch at square leg.
Boult was right on the money.
Subsequently, Boult struck once again at the stroke of tea when Cheteshwar Pujara decided not to play at the ball which was coming into him. The left-arm seamer also got the big fish, Virat Kohli with a short-pitched delivery.
“They are bowling lovely lengths and they have been incisive even in second innings when they know it’s not the same on the first day,” Ashwin said during a press conference at the end of day three.
Ashwin added that the hosts have made them toil hard for their runs and India has been chasing New Zealand since the opening session of the Test match. New Zealand has won six sessions whereas India is yet to get off the mark.
“So I think they have made it really hard for us. They have bowled 65 overs, we will have to see how they wake up and we can bat another session in the morning,” he said
Ashwin went on to add that the team will look to set themselves small targets and achieve them session by session. India will need to bat out of their skin to make a comeback into this Test match as they still trail by 39 runs.
India will need to bat out of their skin.
“I think we are not yet in a stage of the game where from our perspective in the dressing room that we can look very far, we will have to take it per session per hour or however smaller targets we can set the better it is for us. They battled it very well so it’s about getting well in morning session also, since so much time is left in the game it’s very difficult to say what might happen or what we might foresee so it’s important to stay in the moment and continue the way they are batting. They are set in, they know what the wicket is like, we would like to cash in tomorrow morning, ” he added.
New Zealand is in the commanding position and they have ticked the right boxes. On the other hand, India will need a big effort from their lower order to stay alive in the contest.
