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New Zealand opener Martin Guptill showered rich praise on Ravichandran Ashwin on Wednesday, calling him a "wily bowler" who "just doesn't bowl bad balls."
India and New Zealand collided in the first of three T20Is in Jaipur. Put in to bat first, the Black Caps put up a sub-par score of 164-6 despite fifties from Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman. Ravichandran Ashwin's frugal yet pleasantly assertive spell of 2/23 broke the back of the innings as he got both Chapman and Glenn Phillips out in the same over. India chased the total down with two balls to spare.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, Martin Guptill remarked that Ravichandran Ashwin hasn't bowled him a bad ball ever. The senior batter explained that Ashwin's discipline and change of pace make him "just very difficult to get away." Martin Guptill said:
"He's a wily bowler, he's got great control of his line and length and he just doesn't bowl bad balls. I don't remember him bowling me any bad bowls throughout his career. He's just very difficult to get away, you know, his change of pace is so subtle and so well-controlled, he's just very hard to get away."
Ravichandran Ashwin's first three overs, starting with the fifth of the innings, were mostly about controlling the runs and building pressure.
In his final over - the 14th overall - he deceived Chapman with a flighted off-break that succeeded a flat delivery which was hit for four. Phillips, who replaced Champan, was clearly struggling to read the tweaker variations and was smartly set up to play across a carrom ball to end up with a 3-ball duck.
Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma build on Ravichandran Ashwin's gains to take victory
Rohit Sharma started his captaincy career with a swashbuckling 36-ball 48 which provided the right momentum at the start. Suryakumar Yadav looked like a duck in water at No. 3 and played a cheeky 40-ball 62. The duo's wickets gave a small hiccup at the death but Rishabh Pant's mature cameo of 17 saw India through.
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