Washington Sundar's Twin Strikes Help India Keep New Zealand At 92/3 At Lunch On Day One, 3rd Test

Mumbai, v 1 (PTI) Off-spinner Washington Sundar stymied New Zealand’s progress with two vital strikes as visitors reached 92/3 at lunch against India on opening day of third and final Test on Friday.

Washington (2/26) ded two more dismissals to bring his wicket tally to 13 in series, maintaining consistent pressure on Kiwi batters after pacer Akash Deep (1/22) gave India first breakthrough.

At lunch, New Zealand h ir hopes pinned on Will Young for a long haul who batted well to reach 38 t out (3x4s, 1x6s), with Daryl Mitchell (11 t out) at or end.

Washington’s identical strikes to remove skipper Tom Latham (28) and in-form Rachin Ravindra (5) helped India pull things back in control in second half of session as New Zealand appeared to be consolidating on a day one wicket, which h something in it for all parties involved.

Coming off a 11-wicket match haul in second Test at Pune, Washington picked up rhythm soon after his introduction into attack to keep testing Kiwi batters' defence.

It did t take him long to strike, drawing New Zealand captain out to defend but beating him with drift and turn on a delivery that pitched in line of stumps in his third over, Washington beat bat’s outside edge to hit off-stump.

Kiwi batting sensation Ravindra suffered a similar fate on fifth delivery that he faced off Indian spinner, who again got ball to drift and turn past outside edge and hit off-stump.

Earlier, with t much initial movement off surface assisting Indian pacers, ploy to go a little fuller in length seemed to work well as Mohammed Siraj trapped Devon Conway (4) in front of wickets but a thick inside edge saved opener in third over.

However, Akash angled one into left-hander which beat Conway’s bat to pin him out leg-before, with New Zealand also burning a review against on-field call.

While Latham consolidated from re on, using sweep shot to a good effect, Young once again showed his array of strokes and composite defence as a solid 3 batter for Kiwis.

Young went after anything that h width on offer to collect boundaries and having studied R Ashwin (0/20) quite well for ace Indian spinner's first three overs, he did t have any hesitation in shimmying down track to clear ropes over midwicket.