India’s spinners scalped eight wickets out of nine in New Zealand’s second innings to restrict the visitors to 171/9 and give themselves a fighting chance of registering a crucial win in the third and final Test at the Wankhede Stadium, here on Saturday.
Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers taking 4/52 while Ashwin chipped in with three wickets and Washington Sundar one as spin dominated proceedings on the second day of the Test as NZ reached 171/9 in 43.3 overs at stumps with a lead of 143 runs.
Earlier in the day, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill were absolutely on fire in the first 45 minutes or so in the morning as they sent the New Zealand bowlers on a leather hunt.
Pant, especially, was in a marauding mood smashing seven fours and two sixes while going at a strike rate of 138.88. This was the Pant of the yore tearing apart bowling attacks in his own inimitable style with utter disdain for the conditions or the reputation of the bowler.
Ish Sodhi breaks the promising partnership by dismissing Rishabh Pant
The Indian wicket-keeper batsman was playing to his strengths as he knows best as India consolidated their position within an hour of play reaching 162/4 in 32 overs.
Gill batting on 57 off 74 balls with four boundaries and a six while Pant was on 50 off 43 balls with seven fours and two sixes. Pant dropped on 53 by Matt Henry with India on 167/4 off the bowling of Glenn Phillips as the southpaw lived a charmed life in the middle.
The left-hander was out trapped leg before to Ish Sodhi on 60 off 59 balls in 90 minutes with eight fours and two sixes.
The 96-run fifth-wicket partnership between Pant and Gill had raised India’s hopes of going past New Zealand’s total of 235 and perhaps take a sizeable lead on a track that was getting tricky to bat on.
With the dismissal of Pant, Ravindra Jadeja joined Gill as the duo looked to rebuild with another valuable partnership. Lunch was taken with India at 195/5 in 43 overs with Gill on 70 and Jadeja on 10.
India would have been happy heading to lunch adding 109 runs to their overnight score of 86/4 losing just the one wicket of Pant. The post-lunch session saw India losing two quick wickets of Jadeja and Sarfaraz Khan to Glenn Phillips and Ajaz Patel.
Gill was holding one end up nearing his hundred while Washington Sundar was chipping in with the bat.
The Punjab batter was ten runs short of his ton when he gave simple catching practice to slips to Daryl Mitchell off Patel. Gill’s 90 had come off 146 balls comprising seven fours and a six.
Ashwin didn’t last too long handing out a catch to Mitchell as Patel scalped another wicket.
Sundar’s invaluable cameo of 38 off 36 balls comprising four boundaries and two sixes ensured India had a tiny lead of 28 runs that could become crucial if the match turns out to be a close one. The home side were all out for 263 runs in 59.4 overs with New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel scalping 5/103.
India’s innings lasted a total of 287 minutes. New Zealand were off to a horror start with Tom Latham bowled by Akash Deep off the fifth ball of the first over as they slid to 2/1.
Will Young and Daryl Mitchell take New Zealand into a competitive lead after early losses:
The visitors reached 26/1 in nine overs at tea trailing India’s lead by two runs. Washington Sundar got into the act to pluck the wicket of Devon Conway, who holed out at slips to Gill for 22 as the visitors were effectively 11/2.
When Ashwin got new man Rachin Ravindra stumped by Pant for 4, New Zealand were in deep trouble with the score 44/3 but the lead just 16 runs.
Daryl Mitchell and Will Young shared a 47-run partnership for the fourth wicket but the former was eventually out to a well-timed catch by Ashwin running backwards from mid off through Jadeja’s bowling.
It didn’t take Jadeja too long to get his second wicket as new batter Tom Blundell was castled by the left-arm spinner as the Kiwis hurtled to 100/5 with the lead at 72 runs.
Glenn Phillips made a quickfire 28 off 14 balls with a four and three sixes at a strike rate of 185 but was sent back after a glorious carrom ball from Ashwin that rattled his timber through the gate.
Ish Sodhi was sent back by Jadeja caught by Kohli at covers as NZ were down to 148/7 with a lead of 120 runs as they looked in danger of getting bowled out under 150. Young’s departure for 51 after getting caught and bowled by Ashwin signalled the NZ innings coming to close.
