Twitter Reactions: Ravichandran Ashwin bags 6 as Kiwis fumble yet again

India’s leading bowler Ravichandran Ashwin was the tough nut to negotiate for the visiting New Zealand side yet again. The Kiwis started off with a big roar. Their openers looked in ominous touch. Half centuries from Tom Latham and Martin Guptill at the top gave a solid foundation. However, it was R Ashwin who did the trick for India yet again. Ashwin not only made his bowling do the talking, he inflicted a couple of run outs too.

New Zealand openers had earlier put on 118 runs for the opening stand before Latham was caught and bowled by Ashwin. Ashwin managed to get the better off New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson yet again. Ross Taylor and Luke Ronchi managed to get ducks infront of their names on the scorecard. Ashwin was the beneficiary yet again and Ajinkya Rahane completed good catches in the slips on both occasions.

In the meantime, he had also managed to get a feather touch to the ball that rolled down the pitch to hit the stumps. The result being Martin Guptill dismissed on 72. James Neesham looked good in his first impression as a batsman on the Indian soil. His gutsy 71 gave some impetus to the New Zealand batting but it couldn’t be enough for the team to be out of danger. Ashwin kept spinning his web around the Kiwi batsmen.

Neesham became Ashwin’s 5th wicket of the innings as Ashwin bagged 20th 5 wicket haul of his Test career. Ashwin now has 20 five-wicket hauls to his name in just 39 Test matches.

Also read – IND v NZ, 3rd Test Day 3 Tea Review: R Ashwin leads Indian fightback

Ashwin then ran out Jeetan Patel in similar fashion when he got a finger tickle on the ball as Matt Henry hit straight down the pitch. He bagged his 6th wicket by dismissing Trent Boult as New Zealand could manage just 299 in response to India’s 557/5 decl. R Ashwin bagged 6/81 as New Zealand were bowled out for 299 in their first Innings.

India looked thoroughly in command of the match at the half way stage. Here are some of the best tweets after the New Zealand innings: