Daryl Mitchell credits famed Kiwi resilience for late turnaround in fortunes on Day One
MUMBAI: Whenever New Zealand have pinned India down in this series, they have made sure to capitalize on the advantage. After India collapsed from 78/1 to 86/4, the stunned faces in the Indian dressing room, and in the stands, summed up the day.
Daryl Mitchell, who top scored for the Black Caps with a fine 82, felt the team’s collective effort and ability to hang on when the chips were down — read when Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill were piling on the runs — ensured that they ended the day with their noses ahead.”That’s the nature of Test cricket. There’s always ebbs and flows throughout the day and we were lucky today to build some pressure. There was a nice partnership going between Shubman and Jaiswal. But as it happens in Tests, you get one, you try and get two and you keep trying to put the pressure on the opposition. Hopefully, we can take a few more in the morning but we also know that they’ve got a number of world-class players,” Mitchell said.
He went on to laud the effort put in by each player even during the fag end of the day, whether it was Rachin Ravindra running around to save runs or Matt Henry‘s effort that caught Virat Kohli short of his crease. “Our motto is to just keep giving to the team. The way Rachin and some of the other guys chased the ball right to the boundary, that’s the stuff that we pride ourselves on. It means everyone’s engaged. It’s nice that it paid off tonight.
“We put a total on the board (and) hopefully now we can take a few more wickets. The game is evenly poised right at the moment,” Mitchell said, adding that the conditions did not surprise the Kiwis. “It’s the nature of the red soil. It’s going to have bounce and a little bit of turn. We knew what to expect,” he said.
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