Ravichandran Ashwin. (Source – Jio Cinema)
India had a terrific day on the field on Day 2 of the third Test against New Zealand in Mumbai. Firstly, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant played well for their 90 and 60 while later, Washington Sundarscored a quickfire 38 as India posted 263 runs in response to New Zealand’s 235. With that, the hosts also managed a 28-run lead.
In the second innings, the iconic duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja dominated with the ball, putting the Kiwi batters on the backfoot. The off-spinner picked up three wickets while Jadeja picked up four as New Zealand posted 171/9 on Day 2. Other than their bowling, the hosts were terrific on the field as well and according to Ashwin, that will help the team massively in the final innings.
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He expects to bundle the Black Caps early and reckoned that chasing any total would not be an easy task as he described that the surface is extremely slow and tricky.
“Hopefully not many, we should wrap it up with one or two runs here and there. Any runs saved in this innings is going to be much more critical for us when we chase it down. It’s not going to be easy, we’ll have to bat really well. I expected a lot more bounce and speed from this Mumbai pitch, it has been quite slow which is a surprise for me. It’s not a typical Bombay pitch, but much slower than usual,” Ashwin told broadcasters after the end of day’s play.
Ashwin analyses his brilliant catch to dismiss Mitchell
Ashwin picked up a phenomenal catch to dismiss Daryl Mitchell in the 28th over of the third innings. Notably, the batter danced down the track and lofted the ball over mid-on but Ashwin chased the ball running sideways, stretched himself to reach the ball and grab it successfully despite falling hard on the ground. Speaking on the same, the spinner mentioned that he tried to get closer to the ball and backed himself to catch it.
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Asked about his effort by Dinesh Karthik at the end of day’s play, Ashwin had a cheeky response. “For all the flak you’ve given me overs the years, I don’t think I’ve dropped many (catches). I have got great hands and I trusted it [on the Mitchell catch]. I was just telling myself that it’s going to anyway leave me, I wanted to get as close to the ball as possible and I’ve got great hands, so I trusted my hands to go through with it,” Ashwin said.
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