As the closing overs approached, India’s innings was solid at 78-1, however, edges were quickly lost and New Zealand sensed that a clean sweep was within them after they took three quick wickets to reduce India to 86/4 at Wankhede Stadium in the 3rd Test match against New Zealand, which was also the last match of the series on Friday.
Straight from the womb of New Zealand comes Ajaz Patel, a left-arm orthodox spinner who was born in Mumbai, and his magic worked as he struck twice to turn the tables in one over towards the end of the day.
Ajaz, rattled Yashasvi Jaiswal’s leg stump while the latter was trying to execute a reverse sweep for 30, and India’s sinister plot of sending in a nightwatchman didn’t work as Mohammed Siraji got turned over lbw the very next ball. And yes, Siraj wasted a review too.
Of course, New Zealand shifted to the highest gear while celebrating in the next over when a direct throw at the non-striker’s end by Matt Henry cut short the ‘Hazard’ of the team, Kohli, at four, who had set off for an adventurous singleomm.
Simon Doull, who is a former New Zealand player, expressed his dismay at the decision of the Indian team management to allow Siraj to play the role of a nightwatchman as there was no logic behind it.
“That kind of terminology about a lower-order bat positioning themselves to play sounds a bit worrying. Why not Ravichandran Ashwin? If a player has to go out in the middle there, I’m assuming it’s someone who knows how to bat that has to go out and not a bowler just to throw a bowler out there. There had to be someone and if there was then it had to be Ashwin for he knew which end of the bat to hold. He’ll manage to survive the night and come tomorrow, he will bat and get you runs, he is good at that,” Doull was reported saying on Sports18.
“Although the conditions were difficult with the ball turning. Indeed, Ajaz’s bowling was not impressive at all. The New Zealand spinners in fact had not bowled that well uh I mean there were a couple of balls that went past the bat but it wasn’t steady enough. So I thought it was a major blunder in the first place to let a player go in who usually bats at number 10 or 11 and is uncomfortable against spin in turning conditions. If Virat Kohli, if he’s not gonna come out, I’m with it, completely. There are many batters across the globe who do that, who would rather have a night watchman than the last man standing. But send in a guy who can play please,” he continued.”
