Debutant Shreyas Iyer backed the spinners to secure India’s victory on the final day of the opening Test against New Zealand in Kanpur, even though the declaration may have come a bit late by the home team on the basis of the assessment of Green Park track being unresponsive.
Team India declared their second innings at 234/7, having stretched the overall lead to 283 on the penultimate day of the first Test.
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R Ashwin got rid of Will Young to leave the Kiwis at 4/1 as only four overs were possible before bad light forced early stumps on Day 4.
“To be honest, there wasn’t much happening on the wicket. We needed to get to a competitive total, maybe around 275-280,” Iyer said at the end of the day’s play.
Shreyas Iyer, who became the 16th Indian to slam a ton on Test debut during hosts’ first innings, scored 65 in the second essay.
“The talk was to get to a competitive total and I feel that it’s a really good total. We have real spin power, so hopefully we can get the job done tomorrow. We have spin power.
“We have to have faith in our spinners and know they can really put them under pressure on the final day,” Iyer said.
The Mumbai batter added that the team would also have been content with anything above 250.
“I thought 250-odd including the lead was more than enough on this wicket, and fortunately we got some more.”
India were reeling at 51/5 when Shreyas hit the half-century to bail the team out of trouble.
“I have been in these situations before, but not with the Indian team. I used to do this in Ranji games. The idea was to play session by session. I was aware I am the first Indian to score a century and a fifty.
“In the end we have to win the match, and that would be the most important thing for me. Rahul sir said that I need to stay out in the middle for as much as possible and build on the score,” he said.
“Mindset was to play the session and play as many balls as possible. I wasn’t thinking too far ahead, was just focusing on the present,” Iyer said.
(With PTI inputs)
