Bengaluru, Oct 18 New Zealand batter Rachin Ravindra asserted that the wicket at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium is "lovely to bat" after scoring a century against India in the first Test on Friday.
Contrary to India's first innings which wrapped on 46, their lowest total at home, Rachin (134), Devon Conway (91) and Tim Southee (65) guided New Zealand to a hefty lead of 356 runs after posting 402 in their first innings.
Rachin and Southee added 137 runs for the eighth wicket, the joint-highest eighth wicket partnership for New Zealand in Tests against India. Playing on his home ground, Rachin was feeling comfortable to know the surroundings with his father cheering him from the stands.
"Was just trying to build partnerships. That partnership with Tim (Southee) really helped me out, the objective was clear and we knew what we needed to do. It’s a little bit comforting although the wicket is completely different, nice knowing the surroundings. It’s a lovely wicket to bat," he said after the end of play on Day 3.
"Not really superstitious. Great to have him (his father) here, it’s his hometown, also have some family here. Great crowd here as well. I actually took the whole booklet (of ticket allocations)," he added.
After the deflated first innings, Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Rohit Sharma took the cautious approach and added 72-run for the opening stand before Ajaz Patel removed the former on 35.
Rohit went to complete his half-century before getting out on the same bowler in a disappointing fashion. However, Virat Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan had a 136-run partnership for the third wicket to stabilise the innings.
Glenn Phillips finally ended Kohli's innings, on the final ball of the day, for 70, which included eight fours and a six as India were 231/3 at the stumps on Day 3. Sarfaraz Khan remained unbeaten on 70 as India trail by 125 runs.
"Virat is obviously a great player, he punished us but we’ve still got a lot of runs to play with," said Rachin on Kohli's knock which enabled him to complete 9,000 Test runs.
--IANS
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