It won’t be easy for New Zealand, pitch has its challenges: Sarfaraz Khan

Sarfaraz Khan. (Source – BCCI)

New Zealand need 107 runs on Day 5 to win the first Test against India at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. After getting bundled for just 46 runs in the first innings, the Rohit Sharma-led side made an emphatic return, scoring 462 runs in the third innings of the game. Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan stitched a partnership of 177 runs to bring India back to the contest but the lower middle order and the tailenders failed to contribute enough, which put the hosts in trouble.

Picking up 10 wickets won’t be an easy task for the Rohit Sharma-led side. However, Sarfaraz is optimistic that they can turn the tables on the final day. He explained that if the team picks up two or three early wickets, they can put the Tom Latham-led side under pressure and take advantage of it.

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“It won’t be easy for New Zealand. The pitch has its challenges; the ball is moving and cutting unpredictably, and there will be turn. If we can get breakthroughs early tomorrow, they might find themselves in a similar spot as we did,” Sarfaraz was quoted as saying by RevSportz.

Our plan was to play attacking cricket: Sarfaraz

Rishabh and Sarfaraz played an attacking brand of cricket, which put the Kiwis under pressure. They brought back India into the contest and that partnership gave the hosts the belief to get the job done despite a shambolic performance with the bat in the first innings. Speaking about playing alongside Rishabh, Sarfaraz said that they didn’t want to change their batting style and the idea was the keeper-batter to go after spinners while his objective was to target the seamers.

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“Whenever he bat together, the runs score freely. Whenever New Zealand were bringing in a left-arm spinner, I was trying to give the strike to him because I knew his ability against spinners. I knew it would create pressure on them. On the other hand, I was scoring well against the seamers. Both of us like to play an attacking brand of cricket,” Sarfaraz said in the post-match conference.