MUMBAI: Daryl Mitchell had just nudged R Ashwin behind square for a single at the Wankhede Stadium. It was an easy single on offer, and Mitchell, having already faced 90 balls on a hot Friday afternoon, slowly strutted and got to the other end. The New Zealand dressing room has their arms aloft clapping, while his batting partner Glenn Phillips called Mitchell back to the middle of the pitch to congratulate him.
Mitchell, who had just reached his 12th Test half-century, barely had it in him to walk all the way back. But he did, they shared a handshake before he got back to the non-striker’s end. In the scheme of things, it was a crucial knock as New Zealand were 182/5 in the 52nd over. However, there was no raising of the bat or any celebration of sorts. That handshake was all Mitchell had the energy for.
It had been that kind of day in Mumbai. The temperature lingering between 32-37 degrees Celsius but humidity making one feel like it was in the early 40s. And the players and umpires on the field were feeling the heat more than anyone else. The spinners were struggling with sweat so much that R Ashwin was wearing a sleeve, Washington Sundar came with wristbands for the second session and Virat Kohli was wiping Ravindra Jadeja’s arms once in a while so that he could grip the ball properly.
Mitchell, meanwhile, was struggling during the post-lunch session. However, he had toiled hard to get thus far. Coming in to bat in the 21st over, he did not have it easy against the spin trio. Even as Will Young (71) looked solid at one end, Mitchell, with his leg-stump guard and shuffle across, was somehow surviving, especially against Jadeja. He would often get squared up before getting the bat down in time. There were a couple of close LBW calls where he was saved by the inside edge or glove. Mitchell looked a tad comfortable against the two offies because he could use his reach to get to the pitch of the ball and play it safe. Sweep and reverse sweep were his go-to shots to get out of the shell.
In all this, the heat had got to him. So much so that, he was calling for refreshments almost every three or four overs. The umpires, who too were aware of and experiencing the extreme conditions, allowed it too. That, however, did not seem enough. At some point, Mitchell was cramping and couldn’t even jog for a single. He was eager for the tea break more than anyone.
Which is why, when Jadeja ran through the middle-order to take three wickets in quick succession, every dismissal, despite the pressure it was piling on Mitchell, came as a breather. The substitute fielders would run in with fluids and ice packs and Mitchell would get a couple of minutes to cool his head and neck. When he eventually got through to tea, with Ish Sodhi at the other end, it felt like he had finished a marathon.
The first thing he did after reaching the dressing room was to jump in an ice bath. “I think it was probably more the first hour after lunch with me and Will Young batting, that was seriously warm. That last half an hour before tea, I was just trying to be switched on for when the bowler is bowling and trying to conserve as much energy as I could in between balls. Try and concentrate on breathing, and trying to get my core body temperature down and obviously, that tea break was good timing. I jumped in the ice bath and sat in there for about ten minutes. So I definitely came out feeling a lot better after that,” Mitchell would explain later in the evening.
Twenty minutes on, he came onto the field as a different person. Mitchell knew enough to be cautious against Jadeja, who was the most dangerous on the red soil surface, but took Washington on. First, he went deep to whack the offie over deep midwicket and then, used his feet to Washington down the ground not once but twice. With wickets tumbling around him, he did not have much time to get to his century and take New Zealand to a better total. Amidst all this, he would survive some close calls but looked set to get to the three-figure mark once again at this venue — he had scored a century in Mumbai during the ODI World Cup semifinal last year.
However, on the first ball of the 66th over, he had a brain fade. Washington bowled a flatter delivery and the New Zealander guided it directly into the hands of Rohit Sharma at the slips. A frustrated Mitchell punched his bat in angst before taking the long walk back — 18 short of a century, with the 82 runs he scored worth its weight in gold.
Had it not been for him, the visitors would not have managed 200, forget about the 235 they eventually made. At stumps, the hosts were 86/4. And by the time this Test ends, his determination and ability to grind it out on a day where everyone struggled, where the match went into fast forward mode, could well become a differential factor between the winning and losing team.
