3rd Test
Day-1 Afternoon Session Highlights:
Ravindra Jadeja has kept the India team ahead as Young and Mitchell has scored fifties
At The Tea of Day-1:
New Zealand scored 192-6 (1st Innings) vs India.
Ravindra Jadeja (3-53) claimed three crucial wickets in the post-lunch session to give India a slight edge on the first day of the third Test against New Zealand in Mumbai.
The left-arm spinner removed the well-set Will Young (71), who had looked poised for a century, before dismissing Tom Blundell for a duck and Glenn Phillips for 17.
Daryl Mitchell (53*) battled hard through the session, but now faces the tail end of New Zealand’s lineup on a pitch that is increasingly favoring the spinners.
Young and Mitchell navigated the first hour without much difficulty, as both players played with soft hands, used their feet well, and employed sweeps effectively.
However, as the session progressed, the pitch began to offer more turn and bounce, which Jadeja exploited to great effect.
He deceived Young with a beautifully flighted delivery that drifted in before spinning sharply with bounce to take the outside edge.
In the same over, Blundell was dismissed for a duck after playing back to a delivery that pitched on leg stump and turned sharply to dislodge the off bail.
Phillips, who had a bit of luck on his side, was able to hang in for a while with Mitchell, but was eventually undone by Jadeja’s signature arm-ball, which skidded through to breach his leg stump.
This wicket was historic for Jadeja, as it moved him into the top-five for most Test wickets by an Indian, surpassing Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, both of whom had taken 311 wickets.
With the pitch showing increasing signs of misbehavior for the spinners, New Zealand will be hoping to extend their total as much as possible, as batting conditions are likely to become tougher in the coming days.
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