Day 3 report, warm-up match: New Zealand salvage draw despite Mumbai’s gritty performance

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson sends bowlers to have a go at Mumbai bowlers at Kotla, plan gets backfired instead

New Zealand batsmen have another disappointing outing at Feroz Shah Kotla barring wicketkeeper-batsman Luke Ronchi. Mumbai declared their first innings soon after Siddhesh Lad completed his century in 99 balls with a substantial lead of 140 runs. What followed after seemed like the Kiwis were not taking this warm-up game seriously. Martin Guptill’s bad run in the longer version of the game continues as he got out for a duck off the second ball he faced in the innings. Left-arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar lured him into a drive, wicketkeeper Sufiyan Shaikh made no mistake and whipped the bails off in a jiffy the moment Guptill’s back leg went out of the crease. There was still no reason to worry for the BlackCaps and the reason why they sent all-rounder Mitchell Santner to bat at No.3.

As soon as Santner took guard, he started facing problems against spinners from both ends. Ronchi was hitting a few boundaries but most of the time struggled in the initial stage of his innings. Santner survived leg-before appeals and snicks here and there but Siddhesh Lad got introduced into the attack and straightaway got the wicket. Lad surprised Santner by bowling into the rough, he got rewarded for it as the ball got extra bounce and went into the hands of first slip fielder Suryakumar Yadav. But, what followed after took almost everyone by surprise.

Fast bowler Doug Bracewell was sent in to bat at No.4 position. Somehow, Bracewell survived the first session as they went into the dressing room at lunch break with scoreboard reading 62 for 2. Bracewell struck a six straight down the ground, almost reaching me in the Press box. After lunch, Bracewell tried to take on the bowlers in a similar fashion Mumbai batsmen did. Tushar Deshpande got introduced into the attack for the first time in the match. Deshpande was creating problems for both Ronchi and Bracewell. After few overs he picked up the wicket of Bracewell which was an expected result seeing the way he was approaching his innings, carried away by a few boundaries that he got to score.

The Kiwi dugout got back into senses and sent Henry Nicholls to bat who got out for 29 in the first innings. Nicholls could play only a few balls when spinner Vijay Gohill found an edge of his bat as the ball got stuck in Shaikh’s gloves. The Kiwis were 91 for 4 by then and the right thing to do was to send an experienced batsman in the middle. But, they did completely opposite to that by sending left-arm fast bowler Trent Boult to bat. Boult never looked a bit comfortable on the crease barely finding singles through edges and miscued shots. But, Boult was able to take up some time in the middle which the visitors needed. In the meantime, Ronchi was hitting fours and sixes, keeping the crowd entertained, getting past the half-century mark.

Boult heading back to the pavilion was only a matter of time. Gohil was handed the ball and he answered the acting captain on the field—Siddhesh Lad’s call by getting the breakthrough. The Kiwis did the most sensible thing to do after the fall of fifth wicket, sending BJ Watling  in the middle alongside Ronchi. While Watling tried to settle himself in against the spinners, Ronchi took the attacking approach, dealing in boundaries, he soon reached his century in just 107 balls, scoring almost run-a-ball.

Ronchi got carried away after scoring his century and threw his wicket away a few overs before the end of second session’s play. He too got stumped out, Parikshit Valsangkar got his first wicket in the innings. Speculations started with this wicket as Mumbai needed only 4 wickets to wrap up the second innings of visitors and then chase down the lowly total on the board.

New Zealand dugout must have got tensed after Ronchi’s wicket, the reason why they sent opener Tom Latham in the middle. They played out the second session keeping Mumbai bowlers at bay, there were a couple of tough chances and batsmen getting beaten due to uneven bounce on the pitch.

Latham and Watling played like they need to save this warm-up game in the third session. Both batsmen survived a few leg-before appeals and ball barely missing the bat’s edge. But after a few overs in the third session they got into the groove. They started hitting boundaries off loose balls. Watling was nearing his half-century. He started going for maximums as the Kiwis were out of the danger by then. Watling was supposed to retire after reaching his half-century as one could clearly see Neil Wagner padded up and waiting at the boundary line to come in and bat in subcontinent conditions.

Watling tried to go down the wicket and the third stumping of the day happened. Valsangkar turned the ball way from him and pulled the length a bit the moment he saw Watling charging in. As a result, Wagner came on strike. He struggled to score and soon Lad came in and got his wicket as he decided to go after him. As the clouds of danger passed over New Zealand, Latham retired at the score of 25 from 54 balls.

Two new batsmen were in the middle, both spinners, Mark Craig and Ish Sodhi. Craig tried to play a few balls defensively whereas Sodhi tried to hit the second ball he faced out of the park and that’s when New Zealand’s innings ended as Dabholkar took the catch and Valsangkar got his third wicket in the innings. Soon after the second innings through mutual consent the warm-up game was drawn as Mumbai would have needed 96 runs from 5 or 6 overs which was not considered feasible on the field again. To sum up New Zealand batsmen have a lot of catching up to do in subcontinent conditions.

Brief scores: 

New Zealand 225 (Luke Ronchi 107, BJ Watling 43; Parikshit Valsangkar 3 for 41, Siddhesh Lad 1 for 11) & 324 for 7 dec (Tom Latham 55, Kane Williamson 50; Balwinder Sandhu 2 for 21, Siddhesh Lad 1 for 34) lead Mumbai 464 for 8 dec (Suryakumar Yadav 103, Kaustubh Pawar 100; Ish Sodhi 2 for 132, Trent Boult 1 for 35) by 47 runs.

(Arun Rawal, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a daydreamer, movie buff, and cricket fanatic. He could not play cricket, so did the next best thing, writing for it. He loves to play the flick shot over square leg, and believes Sachin Tendulkar is God. His Twitter handle is @ArunRawal93)