I think change is very important.
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Ajinkya Rahane – on 42 at the end of the second day – reached his fifty off 93 balls and was not out on 74.
On Sunday, Rahul made most of a recall to the team as replacement for the injured Murali Vijay. “I just hope I can do even better in the second innings”.
“My mindset was to play positively”, Rahul said in an on-field interview. “I think about these small things which help me”.
The introduction of spin allowed Rahul to break the shackles as he used his feet to send the ball crashing through the off-side to move into ninties.
“Even though Rahul also deserves some credit but he was still scoring those 6s in between to try and keep the viewers’ interest alive but Pujara was a thorough professional”.
The 24-year-old Rahul stroked 15 boundaries and three sixes in his third Test hundred.
“The last couple of months, I’ve been performing well”.
“We generally expect employees to be a little late and looking sleepy as well when they walk in on Monday morning”.
“Frankly speaking, I was not thinking about my hundred”, Rahane said. I have just started my Test career and it is a great confidence boost for me that I can do it at this level. “Maybe I would’ve batted as well”.
Chase, who started the day with two wickets, claimed all three wickets to fall in the second session. In the first innings of this match, Cheteshwar Pujara (46), Virat Kohli (44) and Wriddhiman Saha (47) were all dismissed in the 40s. But with their strengths, I thought it was a bit surprising. He had some good leaves outside the off-stump.
Holder was the only West Indies bowler to taste success in the pre-lunch session, returning figures of 1/66 from the 32 overs he has bowled so far.
They gave away only 67 runs in 26. Wickets are getting slower and slower and it’s not easy to play your shots and get runs. “So you couldn’t play through the line or go after the bowlers when they bowled those channels”. When Rahul brought up his 150, the stage was well set for a truly big score, and Sunil Gavaskar’s mark of 236, the highest by an Indian against West Indies, was under serious threat.
“Ashwin is the number one bowler in the world. We don’t spend too much time discussing that”.
Speaking in a press conference after the end of the day, Rahane said results would come if the basics were followed properly.
India declared their innings at 500/9 with a lead of 304 runs.
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When rain, coupled with bad light, ended yesterday’s third day abruptly, the hosts were facing a deficit of 304 runs and requiring a massive batting effort to save the game and avoid falling 0-2 behind in the four-Test series. In the first Test match we bowled in good areas and we bowled consistently. We all know that he’s a quality cricketer. “When he needs to up the tempo, he certainly looks like he does have the quality to get that done”.
