Thursday 26 / December / 2024
Mumbai : New Zealand's left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel expressed his intention of lasting on the crease for as long as possible as the third Test against India are in a dominating position at Wankhede.
Ravindra Jadeja cleaned up Matt Henry just a delivery before the end of Day 2, which reduced New Zealand to 171/9 with a 143-run lead over the hosts.
Ajaz will step onto the crease with Will O'Rourke with the aim of extending New Zealand's lead as far as possible. The duo will hope to put enough runs on the board which goes past India's capability to chase down on a tricky surface.
The 36-year-old who had a stellar outing with the ball, said that they would try to stay as long as possible and wait till the surface dries out, which would give them an advantage to exploit India batters with spin.
"Whether that's due to the rolling or whether that's due to the heat and the wicket drying up throughout the day, I'm unsure. So it'll be interesting to see how that wicket plays tomorrow morning, whether it kind of reacts the same way or whether it's a little bit different," Ajaz said, according to ESPNcricinfo.
"So yeah, it's certainly, I guess, in the morning if it's not doing as much, trying to bat as long as possible so that we can wait for it to dry out and start turning again," he added.
On the other hand, his counterpart Ravichandran Ashwin is hopeful about getting the final wicket as soon as possible before the chase becomes a challenging affair.
"Hopefully, not many. We should wrap it up with one or two runs here and there. Any runs saved in this innings are going to be much more critical for us when we chase it down," Ashwin said.
The seasoned spinner also acknowledged that India batters would need to step up in order to avoid a whitewash and said, "It's not going to be easy, we'll have to bat really well. I expected a lot more bounce and speed from this Mumbai pitch. It has been quite slow, which is a surprise for me. It's not a typical Bombay pitch, but much slower than usual."
