Ravindra-Patel combo fashions draw for NZ

Two Indian-born cricketers, Ajaz Patel and Rachin Ravindra, showed remarkable resilience under fading light and on a deteriorating track to defy India’s famous spinners, eking out a thrilling draw for New Zealand in the opening Test on Monday.

Indian spinners, led by Ravindra Jadeja, put up one of their most persevering performances in recent times but Mumbai-born Patel (2 off 23 balls) and Karnataka-born Ravindra (18 not out off 91 balls) consumed 8.4 overs after the fall of the ninth wicket to keep New Zealand on even keel in the twomatch series.

A lot of credit should also go to night-watchman Will Somerville (36 off 110 balls), who played the entire fifth morning and to first raise visions of the improbable draw.

‘We were bowling in good areas, we knew we had time but light was always going to come into play in the last session. It happened every day of the match,’ senior India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said after the exhausting day.

Playing his 80th Test, Ashwin crossed Harbhajan Singh (417 in 103 games) to become the third highest wicket-taker for India in the five-day format. Former spinner Anil Kumble leads the Indian wicket-takers list with 619, followed by Kapil Dev with 434.

The result at Green Park, Kanpur is the first time that New Zealand has gone 10 Test matches undefeated (eight wins, two draws) with the current streak starting against India at the start of 2020.

It was one of India’s most hard-fought Test matches at home in recent times and no one would grudge the ‘Good Men’ from New Zealand again showing their wares in adversity.

After this draw, there are some probing questions for India going into the next Test. There will be serious question marks regarding stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane’s place in the playing eleven with skipper Virat Kohli coming back in the next game.

Veteran pacer Ishant Sharma (22 wicket-less overs in match) is looking completely off-colour since England and his place in the eleven ought to be questioned.