NEWS
Follow UsIt was a day of off-spinners in Pune as Washington Sundar picked seven wickets for just 59 runs, and his fellow Tamil Nadu senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin picked the remaining three wickets for 64 runs as New Zealand were all out for 259 in the first innings.
Sundar, who was returning to the side after a long hiatus, was the star player of the day as he used his guile and accuracy to trump Kiwi batters one after the other. His dismissal of batter Rachin Ravindra, who was looking set for yet another big ton after being set, changed the tide in India's favour. He gave the delivery some extra loop, it drifted in and pitched on a middle and leg stump line, and then turned away from the leftie batter to crash into his off-stump.
Luke Ronchi, New Zealand's assistant coach, noticed the change in pace from Sundar and indicated that the New Zealand spinners will also look to do that. “If you notice, for the first couple of sessions, the Indian [spinners] were bowling quite quick and towards the back end, they started to slow their pace,” Ronchi told the press contingent in Pune after the day’s play.
“That sort of made for variable, a bit more turn and bounce and variable sort of reactions off the surface, so that's something we can use in our bowling innings, knowing that changes of pace are quite significant. It was just this consistency of being able to hit a good area for long periods of time.”
He added that Sundar’s delivery to Ravindra would have troubled a lot of batters. “He got some good drift and the ball that got Rachin [out] was from really wide and straight and hit [the off stump]. That's a really nice ball to bowl for anyone,” he said.
Amidst the praise he showered on Sundar, Ronchi also accepted that the pitch didn’t turn as much as he had anticipated. Consistency and accuracy would be really important for New Zealand spinners as they gear up for Day, where India will start from 16/1, having lost skipper Rohit Sharma.
“Both teams could quite easily say at the start of the day, they thought this wicket would turn more than it has so far, but again, it's just about tomorrow for us, build pressure, bowl in some good areas and get that variable bounce,” Ronchi remarked.
“We saw some balls today really jumped off a length and then some stayed a little bit, they just skidded through a little bit, it's going to be a surface where maybe as the game goes on you're not going to feel like you're actually in.”
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