Sundar’s twin strikes nullify NZ’s steady start

Washington Sundar (2-26) bowled an incisive spell to keep India on parity terms with New Zealand on the first morning of the third Test in Mumbai.

Opting to bat, the visitors lost Devon Conway early but were steadied by 44-run stand for the second wicket between Tom Latham (28) and Will Young (38*) who seemed comfortable at the crease till Sundar’s arrival. The off-spinner caused an impact from the get-go, troubling both batters and eventually removed Latham and then got the big scalp of Rachin Ravindra as well to give India respite.

Young, however, batted through along with Daryl Mitchell to ensure that there were no further casualties.

With Jasprit Bumrah unavailable due to illness, the onus was on the pair of Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep to set the tone with the new ball. The latter was the more probing of the two and deservedly had Conway LBW in the first 30 minutes of play. There wasn’t a lot of help for the seamers upfront but the initial moisture in the surface meant that there was just a hint of movement on offer. Latham and Young got through that, and were initially comfortable against the spin as well with Ravichandran Ashwin not really testing the batters too much.

Sundar, however, continued his stellar form with the ball as he probed away with his drift causing problems for both batters. Eventually, he produced a cracker to castle Latham who played down the wrong line to find the furniture disturbed. Few overs later, Sundar produced a replica delivery to nip out Ravindra who was also undone by the drift that the offspinner got with the delivery straightening ever so slightly off the pitch.

As the session went on, there seemed to be a bit more help for the spinners. Ravindra Jadeja got a few to rip past the outside edge and the second session could be challenging for the visitors.

Brief scores: New Zealand 92/3 (Will Young 38*; Washington Sundar 2-26) vs India.