Having ended Day 3 at 144/4 in the second innings, 40 runs away from making New Zealand bat again, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin admitted that Team India is in no command of the situation to think of setting-up a defendable target in the ongoing Wellington Test.
The visitors, after being bundled out for just 165 in the first innings and conceding a massive 183-run lead thereafter, now depend largely on its last specialist batting pair, Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari, to try and keep a very strong Kiwi bowling attack at bay in difficult conditions at the Basin Reserve.
"They are bowling lovely lengths and incisive in second innings even when the pitch is not the same as the first day," Ashwin told reporters after stumps, having ended the first essay with figures of 3/99. "They have made it hard for us and like the Test has just begun for us. They have bowled 65 overs and we have to see how they wake up and we have to bat another session in the morning."
"I know to keep it simple and say this is defendable and this is not, it is pretty much how you would want me to present it, but it's too much -- like six sessions to go and we are not even at a stage where we can say what is a good score to defend."
If Rahane, Vihari and the rest are somehow able to bat the day out on Monday, India will have atleast something to bowl at. "But that is very far away and we have to take every ball at a time to be honest because there is still enough in the surface. We are not yet in a stage from our perspective where we can look at it very far," Ashwin pragmatically said.
"We will have to take it per session, per hour, however small a target we can set, the better it is for us. They (Rahane and Vihari) batted very well. It is important to stay in the moment and continue the way they are batting. They are set, they know what the wicket is like."
India's position would've given a more optimistic reading in figures had the team not allowed the opposition tail to wag in the first two sessions.
"Sometimes we say we need to bowl out teams quicker. I'm not saying we should not, but batsmen don't get out anymore," Ashwin said. "Lower order batters put a price on their wicket. Jamieson has got a couple of first-class hundreds and Ajaz and Boult batted really well."
"Credit should be given where it is due. They really understand conditions well and used it to their advantage. They tried hitting it with the breeze. That's something we can quickly learn from them."
(Inputs from PTI)
