With the first and fourth day being washed off due to rains, the summit clash would proceed into the three reserve sessions on Wednesday.
Virat Kohli & Co. made a decent 217 in their first innings, whereas the Kiwis could only give a lead of 22 runs as they were all bundled out for 249.
Indian pacer Mohammed Shami was the pick of the bowlers for his side by bagging four wickets and conceding only 76 runs.
Talking about India’s strategy for the last day, Shami revealed that there wasn’t a discussion around any particular total. Still, his side needed to disturb the scorers enough to put pressure on the opposition when they bat during the last innings of the red ball match.
“We have lost a lot of time due to rain. So, there is no discussion as such, on a total. We have just started our second innings and we need to put runs on the board. We have to score as many as possible and then see how much time is left to put them in and decide accordingly. In conditions like England, anything can happen but we simply can’t have a pre-plan in mind that we can get them out in this many overs. You need time to get 10 wickets. But first, we need to enough back-up runs,” Shami said in a virtual press conference on Tuesday.
Talking about his exploits with the ball, the 30-year-old stated that a team shouldn’t stick to one plan for the entire match, and bowlers need to access the pitch in order to set up traps.
“Obviously as you play the Test match, you can’t stick to one plan for five days. You need to be flexible and set up lines as per the track. We needed to bowl those tight lines which benefits the team in order to restrict New Zealand to as less as possible. So, the pressure created momentum and we got wickets in clutches,” he adumbrated.
When asked about missing his fifer, the Amroha-born was quick to respond that he doesn’t play for personal milestones at the highest level of cricket.
“When you play for India, you have no such regrets. You can’t think about personal milestones,” Shami concluded.
Meanwhile, India were positioned at 64/2 at stumps on Day 5, with skipper Virat Kohli and bulwark Cheteshwar Pujara batting on 8 and 12, respectively.
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