Ashwin confident of good show against SA in Test

Team India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin termed his team’s first innings score as slightly below par on a ‘two paced’ Wanderers pitch but might be enough with their bowling arsenal to make a match of the second Test against South Africa. India finished their first innings at 202 with Ashwin scoring a crucial 46 towards the end of the innings on a testing pitch after stand in skipper K L Rahul (50) opted to bat.

Asked what’s a tricky total, Ashwin replied: (what is a) good total in South Africa has been tricky, especially in the first innings. It’s always a good thing to win the toss and bat first and you want to post a good score in excess of maybe 260 or 270 which is around about score.

South Africa always batted first (in the past) and got in excess of 250 and dominated games. Maybe we are a bit short. But I still think we’ve got with our entire bowling arsenal available tomorrow. Fingers crossed. We can definitely make something out of this total, he said, hoping Mohammed Siraj will be fit to bowl.

The champion off spinner also hoped that the pitch to quicken up on day two. ‘ I just felt the pitch was a little two paced. Generally Wanderers has the tendency to start a bit slower and start getting quicker. It did quicken up a bit but it just feels a little different to a typical wanderers pitch’.

0

0