MUMBAI: Daryl Mitchell leads the charge for New Zealand as visitors tatter in front of Ravindra Jadjea’s spin masterclass on Day 1 of the third Test at Wankhede Stadium on Friday.
At the stroke of Tea, New Zealand posted 192/6, with Mitchell and Ish Sodhi unbeaten with scores of 53(96) and 1(7), respectively.
Will Young and Mitchell continued to trouble India with a barrage of sweep and reverse sweep shots. The session continued to pass on, with the hosts once again looking out of their wits and New Zealand looking to take a shot at the 300-run mark.
Going down on one knee, sweeping or using the reverse variation of the shot to find the boundary rope was a constant theme throughout the second session.
With hopes slowly fading away at Wankhede, Jadeja came in to change the course of the opening day by dwelling on his experience.
The 45th over turned out to be the one where India got their reward for the patience that they had exhibited throughout the gruelling 87-run partnership.
On the second ball of the over, New Zealand’s resistance finally gave away when Jadeja spun the ball away from Young to force out a healthy edge. India skipper Rohit Sharma made no mistake at the slip, which brought an end to Young’s solid 71(138).
The puff of dust that arose whenever the ball landed on the pitch was an indicator of things beginning to change. Two balls later, Tom Blundell was left clueless in front of a ripper from Jadeja.
A flat trajectory and a puff of dust, when the ball landed, was enough to leave Blundell bamboozled and hit the off-stump with a remarkable turn.
Mitchell continued to lead the charge from the other end and went on to raise his bat for 50. Jadeja continued to haunt New Zealand by toying with their expectations of dealing with the spinning deliveries.
Glenn Phillips leaned forward to defend the delivery, but the ball kept skidding rapidly. Despite Phillips going forward to negate the threat, the ball found enough space to slip past and crash into the stumps.
The second session ended slightly in India’s favour and perfectly set the final phase of the opening day.
Earlier on Day 1, after electing to bat first, New Zealand got off to a poor start as pacer Akash Deep trapped Devon Conway leg-before-wicket for four runs in 11 balls. NZ was 15/1 in 3.2 overs.
Skipper Tom Latham and Will Young took the Kiwis forward.
A fine sweep shot against Washington Sundar by Latham helped the Kiwis reach the 50-run mark in 13.4 overs.
The partnership between Latham and Young came to an end, with Sundar cleaning up Latham’s off-stump for 28 in 44 balls with three fours. NZ was 59/2 in 16 overs.
The off-stump of Rachin Ravindra took the beating as Sundar got his second wicket, dismissing the in-form batter for just five runs. NZ was 72/3 in 20 overs.
Young was joined by Daryl Mitchell, and they took NZ through the remainder of the session without any loss of wickets.
Brief Scores: New Zealand (Will Young 71, Daryl Mitchell 53*; Ravindra Jadeja 3-53) vs India. (ANI)