INDORE: When they walked out in the final session on Day 4, even the Indians wouldn’t have fancied a win by evening. There were no demons in the pitch. Yes, the track was offering turn. It wasn’t alarming. If batsmen played from the crease, they were able to defend convincingly. If they lunged forward and played with soft-hands, they had no reason to worry about close-in fielders as there wasn’t much bounce off the surface except for the odd occasion.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Gautam Gambhir showed it during the first half of Tuesday that there were lots of runs on the pitch, even if there were rough patches on either side. New Zealand hardly made use of those, although they never gave away easy runs. But with a bowler — Ravichandran Ashwin — who is on top of his form and knows how to operate on these conditions, it was always going to be an uphill task for New Zealand to even think about draw after being set a target of 475 runs. Like he did in the first innings on Monday, the off-spinner came up with yet another five-wicket haul (7/59, his best in an innings) to return match figures of 13/140 as India defeated New Zealand by 321 runs to complete a 3-0 whitewash.
If Monday was all about finding rhythm and strangling the Kiwis with guile, Tuesday was different for Ashwin. He was prepared to play the waiting game and even when Ross Taylor went after him, he hardly looked rattled. As he said after the match, his confidence is sky high at the moment, and irrespective of the batsman’s calibre, he knows how to get the job done.
It all began post tea against Kane Willamson. Ashwin had dismissed him in each of the three innings he had played this series, but Williamson appeared more confident here. He was prepared to use his feet and did so in an attempt to disrupt Ashwin’s rhythm. But only for a brief while. Like he had earlier in the series, the batsman once again tried to play across the line and missed. Bruce Oxenford had no hesitation in raising his finger. Then came an interesting period involving Ashwin and Taylor. There is no wrong in attacking Ashwin, but one has to be choosy in shot selection. Despite hitting five boundaries and a six, Taylor chose a fuller ball to sweep, only for it to hit the stumps.
“It was a wicket where you had to work hard, be patient. There was a little bit of help outside off stump, in terms of footmarks. Second innings, they helped us out with their shots. The reason we were slow was because we wanted to get them driving. There was not much bounce to get catches at short-leg,” Ashwin said.
Then on, it was all about Ashwin and India. Luke Ronchi was bowled and Ravindra Jadeja accounted for Jimmy Neessham and Martin Guptill as India gave the 23,000 odd another day to celebrate. “For me, when I start my spell, it’s all about getting into a good rhythm, get through the crease and accelerate. Once I get into the rhythm, I think I can beat any batsman in the world. I came into a series with a plan and it worked,” said Ashwin.
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com