Australia batters made the most of the flat pitch served at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad for the fourth and final Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against India.
Riding on centuries from opener Usman Khawaja (180) and all-rounder Cameron Green (114), the visitors piled up a massive 480/10 in their first innings.
For India, R Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers, returning with a six-wicket haul. The veteran off-spinner bowled with great control as he kept the one end tidy, conceding only 91 runs in his 47.2 overs.
Speaking after the second day’s play, Ashwin said he who will go to bed on Friday (March 10) night "feeling a lot better" as his spells against the Australians had "more penetration" as compared to his bowling on the tour of Bangladesh last December.
"You can go to bed feeling a lot better instead of having just three wickets in your kitty," Ashwin told reporters.
"It does feel good as you end up with good bag of wickets, even if you don't bowl sometimes, you feel good about it. I will go to bed tonight a bit early and a bit happier."
Ashwin has claimed 24 wickets in the series so far with an innings left to bowl, but his six wickets in Ahmedabad will certainly go down as one of his best efforts on a flat surface.
"We expected the wicket to play well, but not as slow as it did. So let's hope that it gets tougher to bat on as the game goes on," he said.
Ashwin then explained what worked for him as he took five of his six wickets on the second day.
"No one spell is better than the other. And I felt at various stages in this particular series, be it in Delhi, the numbers probably don't give you a five or six but the ball is coming out beautifully," he said.
"...and whatever changes I have put in -- loading (getting into delivery stride), cocking my wrists (wrist position), all those things have proved that my spells have been a lot more penetrative. Probably it was in Bangladesh and I don't think I was at my best.
"However, smaller changes that I have made has ensured that I have got enough purchase off the pitches, and it's done more in the air than what it did in Bangladesh."
According to Ashwin, the pitch is still pretty good for batting and it will be a game of second innings when batting might become slightly difficult on a wearing track
"This is a game of second innings, but we have to bat well and probably see some of our top order batters get a big score and have some chance and come out batting day after tomorrow, I will be cheering batters from bottom of my heart after a day like this as a bowler."
Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill did well to stay unbeaten in a tricky phase of play on Day 2. While Rohit remained unbeaten on 17, Gill returned with 18 not out as the hosts ended the day on 36/0, trailing the visitors by 444 runs.
"All I know is that there is enough rolling and enough cut grass that has gone underneath that surface. I play a lot of cricket in Chennai, where there is a lot of cut grass and rolling, and I expect the pitch to be nice and hard and probably break as the game goes on which I hope is not for next five sessions," Ashwin remarked.
(With PTI Inputs)
