New Delhi: New Zealand aim to replicate the way India’s spinners bowled in the opening day of the second Test that got underway in Pune on Thursday, their assistant coach Luke Ronchi said.
New Zealand won the toss and opted to bat but were bowled out for 259 in their first innings with the home team reaching 16/1 at stumps on the first day at the Maharashtra International Cricket Stadium.
Washington Sundar (7/59) and Ravichandran Ashwin (3/64) combined to skittle out the Kiwis on the opening day, using variations to trigger a NZ collapse from 197/3.
“If you notice, for the first couple of sessions, the Indians were bowling quite quick — the spinners — and towards the back end they started to slow their pace,” Ronchi told reporters after the end of action on Thursday.
Ashwin took the first three Kiwi wickets to fall, after which Sundar took control of the proceedings, recording his best figures in Test cricket.
“That sort of made for variable, a bit more turn and bounce and variable sort of reactions off the surface, so that’s something we can use in our bowling innings, knowing that changes of pace are quite significant,” he added.
Washington varied his pace and length and consistently was at the batters, extracting much purchase out of the surface.
“It was just this consistency of being able to hit a good area for long periods of time. There were some balls that went really wide in the crease.
“He got some good drift and the ball that got Rachin (out) was from really wide and straight and hit (the off stump). That’s a really nice ball to bowl for anyone,” Ronchi said.
He also noted that there was less turn than what they anticipated that will force the Kiwi batters to bowl with discipline on Friday.
“Both teams could quite easily say at the start of the day, they thought this wicket would turn more than it has so far, but again, it’s just about tomorrow for us, build pressure, bowl in some good areas and get that ball (off) variable bounce,” Ronchi added.
