India vs New Zealand 2021, 1st Test - Who Said What

Rather funnily, two players of Indian origin – Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel – stood tall to deny India a victory in Kanpur, as the first Test of the two-match series ended in a thrilling draw. India needed nine wickets on the final day to make a winning start to their new World Test Championship campaign, and those chances looked grim at lunch, as they could not separate Tom Latham and nightwatchman William Somerville.

But after escaping the first session unscathed, New Zealand found itself amidst a flurry of wickets, with their 2016 nemesis duo of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja operating in tandem. Umesh Yadav struck immediately after lunch to get rid of the staunch resistance of Somerville to open the floodgates as the spinners joined the party.

Jadeja (4/40) and Ashwin (3/35) spun a web around the New Zealand order, with the former sticking to his usual plan of bowling wicket-to-wicket and bagging all four of his wickets lbw, while Ashwin brought up his bagful of variations to the fore too. After a four-wicket second session, India needed five to seal the game post-Tea but were forced to settle for a draw by a combination of deteriorating light and Ravindra-Patel duo, who ate 52 balls between them for the last wicket.

Player of the Match Shreyas Iyer:

It’s a great feeling, but would been the icing on the cake if we had won the game. You can see that the pitch is still intact. We bowled really well. Mindset was to play sessions and play as many balls as possible. People say I am a flamboyant player, don’t curb my instincts, but I was just looking to play as many balls. Enjoyed batting with Ashwin and Saha. Happy with the overall performance of the team. The pressure is always there. They got off to a great start. Once we got a sniff and got quick wickets, we made best use of the situation.

India skipper Ajinkya Rahane:

Not really. I tried my best. Very good game of cricket, they played really well. We came back really well after the first session. We wanted to get that partnership going. We were looking to bowl 5-6 overs in the end, but we needed that partnership to carry on. I don’t think we could have done anything different. The chat with the umps was about the light. As a fielding team, you want to bowl more overs, as a batting unit you don’t want to bat in that situation. The chat was about the light, but umpires made the call and I thought they were right. I thought on this wicket the spinners had to bowl long spells. It was all about rotating the bowlers and they bowled really well. I am really happy for Shreyas. He had to wait a long time for his Test debut. He batted really well. The way he works, his record in FC cricket is really good. Virat is coming back for the next game. We’ll have to wait and see till the Mumbai game. I am not going to make any comments but the management will make a call.

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson:

It has been touch and go around this time throughout the game. Terrific game overall. All three results were still at play. We showed a lot of heart to bat through the day. Some fantastic experiences for Rachin, Ajaz and Somerville. It was also nice to have a crowd here to see this game. The two fast bowlers that did play were outstanding. Bowling long overs was an unbelievable effort. We know this Indian side is a very strong one. Experience overall in this game was good to have. There are things to touch on. Getting the overs under the belt was good to have. We have to prepare for a different kind of pitch in Mumbai

R Ashwin:

We were actually keeping things under control. We were bowling in good areas and we knew if we had the time to go on and put some pressure on them, we could get the job done but light was always going to come in the last session. There has been bad light in every single day of this Test match so we did expect it, so no complains. Couldn’t get the job done but we stuck together well. The beauty of Test cricket is that you need to want it. It’s really hard, it’s not one of those formats where you turn up, have a good day, have a good four-over bowl or have a good 20-overs bat. There is a lot of pain, there is a lot of hard work, there’s a lot of tenacity you need to bring into play. Definitely I am someone who wants to play this format and I enjoy it.

(On breaching Harbhajan Singh’s Test-wickets tally) These are milestones that are constantly kept on tab, it’s wonderful. Ever since Rahul bhai has taken over, he’s kept saying that how many ever wickets you take, how many ever runs you make in 10 years time, you won’t remember them. It’s the memories that matters so I want to have some special memories going forward in the next 3-4 years. Anytime pitches are being spoken about and I am asked a question, it turns into a controversy. So, I’ll try and keep a tab on that. Getting down to the last session, last mandatory over, I think it’s played its part, some wonderful Test cricket. The young boy, Ravindra, batted beautifully, showed great composure, Ajaz Patel with his defence. It just tells you a story. Everybody hangs in there, everybody can defend well these days, so it’s not as easy as it used to be once upon a time getting these tail-enders out. Great day of Test cricket, I hope people who watched it enjoyed it.