While Shreyas Gopal had ran through the India Red line-up in the first part of the day’s game, Kuldeep Yadav claimed a fifer in the later part to tip the match in India Red’s favour. After dominating the game on the first day, bowlers were again on top of the third day of the ongoing Duleep Trophy.
Yadav, who had had success in the first innings as well had said that it is challenging for the spinners to bowl with the pink ball and Gopal too agreed with the fellow spinner. In spite of the challenges spinners claimed 11 of the 14 wickets that fell on Day 3. Speaking about his five-wicket haul that helped bowl India Red out, India Green’s Gopal said, “We bowled in good areas and put the pressure on and got wickets.”
Asked about what the spinners need to do to get wickets with this ball and using the conditions available, like using the rough, the leg-spinner said, “At the most I could use the rough if I was bowling to a left hander. If you see most of the dismissals in the match, there were not many that got between bat and pad going the other way or going the wrong line. We didn’t get as much help off the wicket as we might have got with another ball. We bowled in good areas i.e. bowl from a good length spot and be on stumps as much as possible. We need to get used to these balls.”
“To be honest (there has been) nothing that’s spun drastically for both teams,” he observed. Asked about the turn that helped Yadav’s bowling, Gopal elaborated, “He did spin a little bit, but like I said nothing that went through bat and pad or things like that. Very little bit of normal spin.”
“As spinners we might not be getting as much help with the pink ball so we need to find a way, try to be more accurate and be more on the stumps, have that one odd ball that spins and have little bit of bite off it. I think that would be the wicket-taking ball,” he explained while discussing the topic further.
Speaking about Yadav’s introduction early into India Green’s innings which helped tilt the balance completely in India Red’s favour, Sudip Chatterjee, said, “He had taken wickets for us in the first innings as well. He was bowling well so he was to be given the ball. We wanted a breakthrough. The quicker we get the wickets the (sooner the) advantage would be with us. Hence he was brought in to bowl early and he got us the wickets.”
While wickets crumbled on Day 3 as they had on the first day, Chatterjee had scored a century on along with Abhinav Mukund on the second day and dominated the proceedings. Speaking about the conditions from the batting perspective he said that, “You can say that it is a good wicket for batsman, but the bowlers are also doing well. Good to bat on.”
“On the third day there was more dew. When there is dew the ball becomes heavy and is an issue for the bowlers to grip and though our (India Red) bowlers were facing a bit of a problem they have bowled well.”
