NEW DELHI: Ravichandran Ashwin credited his success to confidence and reliable hands while reflecting on his remarkable catch to dismiss Daryl Mitchell during Day 2 of the third and final Test in Mumbai.
New Zealand managed to score 171 for nine wickets after bowling out India for 263 runs in their first innings on Saturday. Will Young emerged as the highest scorer with 51 runs from 100 deliveries.
With a lead of 143 runs, the visitors are ahead, and the match appears likely to conclude during the second session of day three. Ajaz Patel remained unbeaten on 7 runs when play concluded for the day.
For India, Ravindra Jadeja claimed 4 wickets for 52 runs, whilst Ashwin secured 3 wickets for 63 runs, collectively taking seven wickets.
When asked about the Mitchell catch, Ashwin said he wanted to get as close to the ball as possible.
“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,” said Ashwin after the end of day’s play.
Talking about conditions, Ashwin said that it’s not a typical Bombay pitch and he expected a lot more bounce but to his surprise the track was too slow.
“(On employing the carrom ball) The game itself is divided into two halves. The one from the pavilion end and from the other end, it’s slightly behaving differently. It’s slightly flatter from the one where we are bowling from the dressing room side, the bounce is much lesser, so I thought I will try and use it the other way. The batters are also knowing that it’s easier to take me on from this side. So I wanted to give something different.
(Target) 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. It’s not going to be easy, we’ll have to bat really well. Expected a lot more bounce, it has been quite slow which is a surprise. It’s not a typical Bombay pitch, much slower,” said Ashwin.
