It was scorching at the Eden Gardens on Monday. The sun was showing no mercy like it had on the previous afternoon, well not quite literally. But at least there was that occasional cloud cover that proved to be respite for the New Zealand bowlers who were bowling their hearts out testing the Indian batsmen with some fine specimen of fast bowling. That, Rohit Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha shone bright at the end of it is a different story, but there was more hard work left to be done for India on day four when New Zealand showed a lot of gumption chasing 376 for victory.
Pacers were dealt with confidence and the spinners were shown the full face of the bat in their defense. New Zealand had managed to wade off early morning trouble showing great character but a similar resilience was shown from the bowling end by Ravichandran Ashwin.
Continuing his spell after lunch, Ashwin bowled 21 overs on the trot constantly searching for a wicket that would break the Kiwi shackles. He would change lines, try out different plans, have discussions with the captain and keep looking for that wicket that India were trying to find from every end.
The breakthrough finally came as Martin Guptill was trapped LBW by Ashwin. Ashwin went on to pick two more in the innings and his three wickets were a testament to his character shown with the ball. Not once did he complain, not once did he look like stopping from one end at any stage. He had been given the ball by his captain and Ashwin had a job to do which he did in great fashion.
“It was a very long and tiring spell and it was tough out there in the middle,” Ashwin told BCCI.TV. “I had to buckle in because we knew that the fast bowlers needed to be given enough rest. In the bargain, I picked up a few important wickets. I believe it’s one of the more decisive bowling spells I have bowled in the recent past.”
Speaking about his marathon spell, Ashwin said, “I had to do it and it was a decisive spell. Maybe in the long run one may not find it so because of how things happened so quickly after tea. Once we broke through the back of the New Zealand line-up and got them to four or five down, it was just a matter of time.”
The pitch offered a lot of assistance for the fast bowlers on Day 3. It was staying low and some deliveries popped off the pitch making it difficult for the batsmen. Ashwin agreed it was a challenging pitch to bowl on. “It was a very tricky pitch and there was not a whole lot on offer.
It was just the odd ball jumping and spinning and keeping a touch low. I felt the wicket behaved much better today than how it behaved yesterday. There was a lot more balls that were not easy for our batsmen to counter and for some reason the wicket binded well because of the grass today as well. The game was closer than what the scoreboard suggests. At one stage after lunch they were 55/0 and all they needed was a hundred run partnership somewhere. We did well to come one up at the end of it.”
Ashwin had some special words of praise for pacer Mohammed Shami who struck after tea and reversed the ball to good effect. That spell from Shami according to Ashwin was exactly what the team needed at that stage. “There has to be a special mention for Mohammed Shami today. He came out after tea and exactly gave what we needed because I was going through a tiring spell and we needed somebody to give us one or two wickets in that phase. It was a beautiful spell of reverse swing. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled well too after tea and the credit needs to go to the team that did so well.”
But what has been a feature of Ashwin’s bowling has been his ability to plot dismissals of batsmen. It is almost as if he has different set of plans for one batsman. Take Tom Latham’s case for instance. Ashwin had got him LBW twice in two innings in the first Test. Latham came up with a plan to counter it and get LBW out of the equation. You could see Latham getting his bat in front of his pad while defending the ball and dealt with Ashwin far better than how he did previously. Ashwin though had another set of plan to get him out, this time in a different fashion.
“Tom Latham has come with a clear game-plan. He is a good player and let’s not make any mistakes about it. Today he batted beautifully. I was working on different plans. I came in, started drifting the ball in and almost got a caught and bowled but then I had to go away from him and see if he came out for a drive. He wasn’t getting much runs on the off-side. Finally, he reached out for a drive and was out caught behind.
It was a good innings but that wicket was needed to break their back. The best thing about this New Zealand team is they don’t give anything easily. They have come with a game-plan and it is really showing. They are making us work very hard for every single wicket and run.”
What has been more impressive about Ashwin’s craft is his ability to keep the batsman guessing and inducing subtle variations at the batsmen at the right time. He has a straighter one that is released just like his stock delivery and Ashwin here explains its execution. “It is just a subtle change. It is an under cutter that is coming out really well. It needs to spin like a top and come out with the seam facing parallel towards the pitch and the ball is rotating on its axis. The ball tends to skid on a little more and on a wicket like this, it could just hold its line or go out a bit as well.”
Expect Ashwin to go technical about it but realise its joy while in practice. He is not just a bowler on the cricket field, but a thinking bowler that is donning different thinking caps at different stages of the game. Virat Kohli mentioned having Ashwin in the side as ‘priceless’ and Ashwin is showing why.
