World Test Championship: Test cricket at its best at Ageas Bowl

Gulf News

A gripping fifth day's play, but what will happen on the final day? Anis Sajan, Mr Cricket UAE, in conversation with Gulf News editors  India; New Zealand; Virat Kohli; Kane Williamson; World Test Championship; cricket  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #cricket #WorldTestChampionship

Transcript

00:00What an interesting days of play. New Zealand is probably a little ahead.

00:11Hello everyone. Welcome back to Straight Back with Gulf News. And Mr Cricket UAE, that is Anil Sajan.

00:16With me is Anil Sajan. And along with Gautam Bhattacharya, we discuss Day 5 of the Ultimate Test.

00:24That is the World Test Championship between India and New Zealand.

00:27Finally, we had a near full day of match. One hour's game was lost, but still we managed to

00:34get 80 overs through today. And still, we don't know whether there could be a

00:41result possible. I will go to Anil and just see what he thinks about it.

00:46Good evening, Shyam. Good evening, Gautam. Good evening to all the beautiful people of Gulf News.

00:50We are at 10 pm, past 10 pm. And probably in UK, 7 pm, that the match finally we got some

00:57sunlight. I would say lots of sunlight to play 80 overs. And what an interesting days of play.

01:02New Zealand probably a little ahead by taking that crucial lead of 32 runs. And India at the

01:08end of the day, 64 for 2. So they are 32 for 2 to be precise. They are chasing the game to be

01:14very honest. Because if there is a collapse, New Zealand can probably chase down the game.

01:18But we will have to wait and watch how Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara

01:22tackle the first session tomorrow. Gautam, do you see a draw coming up?

01:29Yes. To be very honest, Shyam, I don't see a result at this point. But we keep doing these

01:38predictions. And then finally, cricket makes a mockery of it. I mean, if you look at the way

01:43things have gone today, first and second session, Mohammad Shyam is bowling. Then what team Saudi

01:50did in the last session, the way he set up Rohit Sharma and got a LBW out of him is amazing. But

02:00given the time that is left with us, it is really, really difficult to see something

02:05very dramatic happening as to India collapsing to something like 150-160 odd runs. And that

02:12gives New Zealand a very decent chance of winning. I mean, should that happen?

02:17Yesterday, we said that India's chance of a win is very, very slim or rather negligible.

02:24The only team who could win was New Zealand. But that is provided they run up a good first

02:30inning score. But that didn't happen. That is due to some excellent bowling from India and also

02:36very accurate bowling. And Shami was the pick of it. What do you think of Shami's performance?

02:43Yes. You know what, Shyam? India would have been in big trouble had Shami and Ishan Sharma not got

02:49in the other wickets. Because at one stage, when New Zealand started, they were probably just two

02:55down with 117 just in areas. But credit to the Indian bowlers. The ball was swinging quite a lot

03:02as it happened on the first day. So, they bowled with a lot of control. They bowled the right length

03:06and got rewarded. In the first half, only before lunch, we managed to pick up, I believe,

03:13three to four wickets. And then in the second half, we kept on chipping in. But finally,

03:18thanks to Jameson and Saudi that they managed that extra 32 runs. Otherwise, India would have

03:24been on par with them. But nonetheless, you have to give credit to our Indian bowlers who made sure

03:30that New Zealand never ran away with the game. Very accurate bowling from Indians, especially

03:36Ishan and Shami. But Jasprit Bumrah was not at his best. But still, he was accurate enough to

03:45keep the runs down. What about the spinners? We didn't see much of the spin bowling, Gautam.

03:52Because although I know Ashwin got two wickets, but still, he bowled a little over 14, maybe around

03:5914 overs. I think Jadeja got around seven overs. So, they were of not much use so far.

04:06So, was it a mistake to carry them? Yes, Shami, it was very clear that the spinners were not

04:14part of the plan, initially. I mean, they were brought on when, you know, possibly,

04:18they needed to stop the tail from wagging. And Ashwin is very good in doing that.

04:24That is why. Same with Jadeja. They were not exactly part of the plan.

04:28And that's where the question of a fourth simmer again came up. But anyway,

04:34what I would like to say was, you know, the effort from both the sides of the seriousness

04:40from both the sides with which they treated it, I mean, nobody is actually willing to give a quarter

04:46in this battle. So, that's what, you know, made this fifth best place remarkable. Yesterday,

04:52when after the washout, when we were talking, we could hardly have bargained for a complete

04:58day of this kind of drama, gripping drama. Yes, indeed. Very absorbing days of play. And

05:05even if you look at the last few overs, the particular over you mentioned about Tim Southey,

05:11the way he set up Rohit Sharma, brilliant, brilliant. That's cricket at its finest, actually.

05:16And coming back to Anees, where do you see the match going from here?

05:24Before that, you know, Shami, like you asked Gautam about that India probably

05:28felt that they had an extra spinner instead of going with one spinner. Yes,

05:32I remember our conversation we had on the first night. We should have probably gone with four

05:36simmers. But nobody expected that you would have two days of rain and the wicket will not have that

05:41wear and tear. Had that wear and tear would have been there and we would have had that one day's

05:45extra play more, even if not the two days. You know, there would have been a difference in this

05:50test match. But nonetheless, what has gone is history. Now, what you say about the match,

05:56yes, India definitely need to guard themselves and ensure that they go to the safety passage

06:01toward lunch. So, if they are batted towards lunch, that means they must have batted around

06:0526 to 30 overs. And in 30 overs, even India has managed 60 runs. So, India will be almost 100

06:11runs ahead and it may be a loss of one wicket, maximum two. India can then stretch their lead

06:18as much as possible with the next six wickets. But New Zealand definitely are the only team which

06:22has a realistic chance. I don't think anything else except a draw, which is 70 percent and 30

06:29percent probably New Zealand. Why I brought up the spinners issue was, at one point, that is,

06:35closer… When the new world was nearly due, when they had to get to the 80-over mark,

06:42it was Jadeja and Bumrah bowling. Simply because, Jadeja was brought in not because there was any

06:48purchase on the weekend. Because they had to get the overs through to reach 80 overs. And they

06:53wanted to keep Shami and Ishanth Sharma afresh. So, if we had a fourth seamer, perhaps instead

07:01of Jadeja, he would have still kept the pressure on. Because that was a time when Colin Granholm

07:06was at the crease and he had an easy time. He could play himself in. Maybe if he had a fourth

07:13seamer, we could have used that to put pressure at that point. Maybe if he could have got out a

07:19couple of wickets at that point, maybe New Zealand may not… I mean, this is again in hindsight,

07:25maybe New Zealand may not have got a lead. Which is why I brought up that thing. Like you said,

07:31what is done is what is gone is gone. We can only speculate on these matters. Now,

07:37having said this, you said that only New Zealand can win and India has to save the match.

07:45My problem with that is, if you look at the first innings, India were 1-43-3. And then we went on

07:52to 2-17. So, India has this propensity of having a sudden collapse at some point. So, that

08:00brittleness still remains at some point. So, Gautam, do you see something like that

08:06happening in the second innings too? Yes. I can't write that off. I mean,

08:14here I see a difference between the way the New Zealanders have prepared for this test match and

08:19the way Indians have approached it. Indians, the thing is, for example, the one way to prevent it

08:28is, once again, Rishabh Pant has to realize that he is starting afresh and he has to forget

08:34what he has done in Australia, what he has done against England. I mean, there cannot be

08:40that luxury of playing away from the body and that kind of a cavalier stroke play.

08:48So, they have to be very, very careful. I mean, see the difference between them and

08:51the New Zealand tale today, between Granholm and Williamson, they added something like 27

09:00valuable runs. After that came Saudi, Saudi was quite capable of those big strikes,

09:11they added some 30 or 32 runs. So, they made each of those lower order partnerships come.

09:18In between, Kyle Jameson also added some 27 runs. Jameson was very good, he scored 25

09:24odd runs. So, there were three partnerships like that. So, at a point of time after guarding

09:30the Citadel till lunchtime, because we don't know when the conditions are going to get tricky for

09:35batting. Like today itself, the second session, it was far easier for batting. But when Virat

09:44Kohli came down against the new ball, it was a completely different proposition. I mean, that

09:49Saudi over was simply torrid. He got hit in the head as well.

09:54Really careful in the first two hours tomorrow. Otherwise, there could be a twist in the

09:59tale. I mean, we are saying draw, but there could still be a twist in the tale.

10:04Yeah, before we forget about one stellar knock here, the quiet man of New Zealand and perhaps

10:11the lynchpin of New Zealand always. He seemed to do always well against India and I guess you know

10:17whom we are talking about. Kane Williamson, he held the New Zealand innings together. He was

10:22responsible for where New Zealand is today. Anish, your thoughts on the Williamson innings?

10:29Absolutely fabulous. They were showing about his percentage of correct shots. It was 84%

10:35that showed the quality of man what Williamson possess. On this wicket where the ball was moving

10:41around, jagging around left, right and centre, he showed the perfect technique to handle it.

10:46And mind you, had he not held that one and New Zealand probably would have collapsed to less

10:50than 200 or maybe 170. And one of the reasons today they got that 32 runs lead, okay, the tail

10:56wag, but he held that innings till the end. We'd made sure that New Zealand fought in that tough

11:01conditions where Indian bowlers were really making the ball to top. Coming to you, Gautam,

11:09again, I know you talked about Shami earlier, but to me, the ball of the day was bowled by

11:15Shami when he dismissed Vijay Vatling. The ball pitching on the middle and hitting the off, that

11:20is Shami at his best. Your impressions, Gautam? Yes, absolutely. I mean, see the thing is,

11:28he again, his strength is getting the ball to move off the seam. But what he got right today

11:34was the perfect length, which forced, you know, which lured a batsman like Ross Taylor to go for

11:40that expansive drive. And here also, he brought it, he drew him to the shot and then finally,

11:47Vatling was dismissed. So yes, it was really and I think the length of the spell,

11:56that also proved that because he is the oldest among this. No, I think

12:03Ishanth is there. Ishanth should be the oldest in terms of age. But the venom with which he

12:09bowled, I mean, this is Shami, fair to say that he kind of rolled back the years.

12:17Also, I mean, we said that spinners were ineffective, but

12:22Ashwin got a little bit of purchase at the end, which gave us some kind of hope in the sense that

12:28if the match goes into the last session, maybe, maybe. And like Anish said earlier, if we had a

12:36full five days of game, maybe the spinners could have come to the play and maybe Ashwin would have

12:42been a handful. Now, again, the ifs and buts, no time for ifs and buts. We have just three sessions

12:49of play left. Dhanesh said there is maximum 98 hours possible. So, I mean, we have discussed

12:58where all the possibilities for where the match is headed to. Any more? Anything?

13:07We are good, Sham. I guess we've covered almost everything. And we hope that we have a nice tight

13:12day to finish off this World Test Championship, which will be we have some happy memories for

13:16both the teams. Gautam, anything to add from today's play or our thoughts on tomorrow?

13:24See, about tomorrow, I think we have spoken at, we have dealt with the kind of possibilities.

13:30All that I can say is today's play kind of had been a redeeming feature of this in the number

13:35of days that we have had so far. Test cricket at its best, test of character at its best.

13:42I don't remember seeing Virat Kohli getting hit on the helmet, you know,

13:48in the last four to five years like this. Third time in his career.

13:55This is the phase of the weekend, which basically did it. I mean, he,

14:00because he doesn't take his eyes away. But finally, yeah, finally, that split second decision

14:06that landed him a bit in a bit of an awkward situation. But then he is not Virat Kohli for

14:11nothing. So and this partnership is very crucial. And the thing Cheteshwar Pujara that he needs to

14:19do is, you know, he should start playing his shots because there is no point in trying to

14:24hang around in this weekend. It just takes one ball that, you know, nanosecond of a

14:31thing to go wrong. And then he's gone, scoring another 15 runs of 60-65 balls.

14:38Tomorrow is a different day. Tomorrow, the approach should be different.

14:42Let's hope we get a full day's play tomorrow, because if they are going by today's yardstick,

14:47and that could be an absorbing day's play. And hope it lives up to the promise of a final day's

14:52test. I'll leave you with that thought for tomorrow. Thank you very much for joining us.

14:59Good night, everybody. But please log on to our golfnews.com,

15:03as well as our social media channels, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you very much. Good night.

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