Mumbai, Nov 1
Having played a crucial role in helping New Zealand go past 200 runs on a rank-turner, batter Daryl Mitchell said the half-hour before the tea break on the first day of the third Test was the toughest and he was happy to jump into an ice-break in the break.
New Zealand had expected things to be difficult at the Wankhede Stadium, and Mitchell expressed pride in helping his team into a good position after a challenging day. "I think it was probably more the first hour after lunch with me and Will Young that was seriously warm, and that's probably what took it out of us. You could see a number of the Indian players as well were commenting on how much they were battling with it as well, so yeah, that last half an hour before tea was just about trying to be switched on for when the bowler was bowling and trying to conserve as much energy as I could in between balls. I tried to concentrate on breathing and getting my core body temperature down because that was probably what was causing my struggle," said Mitchell in the day-end press conference on Friday. "Obviously, that tea break was good timing. I jumped in the ice bath and sat in there for about 10 minutes, so I definitely came out feeling a lot better after that," he added. Bowled out for 235, in which Mitchell top-scored with 82 and Will Young contributed 71, New Zealand wrested back the initiative by reducing the hosts to 86/4 at stumps, claiming three quick wickets after Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill added 53 runs for the second wicket partnership. Mitchell stated they will look to grab a few early wickets on Saturday morning to put the Indians under further pressure. He mentioned that the Test is evenly balanced right now and noted that the morning session on Saturday will be crucial. "That's the nature of Test cricket; there's always ebbs and flows throughout days, and we were lucky tonight to build some pressure. There was a nice partnership going there between Shubman and Jaiswal, and I thought they played really well. Then, as it happens in Test cricket, you get one, you try and get two, and you keep trying to put pressure on. That's why we love the game; that's why we keep showing up day in and day out. Hopefully, we can take a few more in the morning, but we also know that they've got a number of world-class players," said Mitchell. The New Zealand batter noted that their batters were playing fewer sweep and reverse sweep shots in this series compared to their peers because they are constantly weighing the risks involved. "Something we pride ourselves on is how we adapt to different conditions all around the world. Knowing the red soil and the bounce that can produce at times, it's about finding the right times to use the sweep and put pressure on them while also accepting that they're allowed to bowl good balls. The risk that a sweep shot can bring at times with the bounce means we're just constantly trying to weigh up how they're trying to bowl to us, what they're trying to do, and how we can put pressure back on them. We did that well for periods, especially during the partnership between me and Young," he explained. Mitchell mentioned that New Zealand did not make any special preparations for this series and highlighted that they have batters who have played a lot in India, which has made a difference. "If you look throughout our batting lineup, there's a number of guys who have played not only Test cricket but a lot of international cricket in this part of the world. We know how we want to go about playing on these surfaces against world-class bowlers like Ashwin and Jadeja. We're just a bunch of Kiwis taking on the world, having fun, and trying to win games for our country. We're very proud to do so. Hopefully, we can just keep chipping away as Kiwis do, and we'll see what happens over the next few days," said Mitchell. He credited the energy and exuberance of his teammates for the three quick wickets towards the end of the day that turned the tide in New Zealand's favor. "You want to keep taking wickets, so it's always nice. It's the nature of the surface and playing Test cricket over here. We're happy about how we hung in there while they were building a partnership. You know when you get one, you hopefully can get two and three, so that's sort of our motto: just keep giving to the team. The way Rachin and some of the other guys chased the ball right to the boundary-that's the stuff that we pride ourselves on. It means everyone's engaged, everyone's giving to the team so that when we get one, hopefully we can get another, and it's nice that it paid off," said Mitchell.