Mumbai: Daryl Mitchell has fond memories of the iconic Wankhede Stadium where he struck that famous hundred against India last year in the ODI World Cup semifinal albeit in a losing cause. However, the New Zealand batter’s half-century on the first day of the Mumbai Test would be invaluable for his team’s fortunes considering the situation of the game at the moment and Mitchell was poignant about the venue.
“It's a beautiful ground to play cricket and as a kid, I've watched games being played here on TV. I've seen plenty of games here shown on TV. It's special to walk out here and play Test cricket,” he added.
Mitchell was forthright about the condition of the pitch. “It’s the nature of the red soil pitch in this part of the world. There will be some pace and turn. We were expecting a total and now we can hopefully take a few more wickets. We will see what happens tomorrow. The game is evenly poised at the moment and that’s the nature of the format.”
The NZ batter was also proud of his own individual performance in the series. “Firstly, very proud to win the series here and to stitch partnerships that help the team’s cause. Keep trying to put totals on board. Today, it's nice to contribute to the team and put on a total that we can defend and take some wickets. It was pretty humid today and pretty sticky. There wasn't a lot of breeze and coming from NZ it was hard but these are the challenges of playing Test cricket. This is why you play Test cricket to test yourself in these conditions. Very proud to get the job done.”
Mitchel also felt the first hour after lunch was a testing time for NZ batters. “The first hour after lunch when ‘Will Young and I was batting was seriously warm. Even the Indian players were battling with it. The last half an hour before the tea break, the idea was to be switched on when the bowlers were bowling and then conserve energy and concentrate on breathing. The tea break was good as I could jump into the ice bath and came out feeling a lot better after that) he added.
