Luke Ronchi: ‘Pitch holding up better than expected’

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New Zealand batting coach disappointed with Young’s lbw dismissal, but still hopeful of a positive result

In a studio show on Star Sports, commentator Simon Doull said he hadn’t heard umpire Virender Sharma prompt Will Young that ten seconds had elapsed since he had been given out lbw to R Ashwin and the clock was ticking for the review. For their part, New Zealand are not fussed about the non-review because they were clear the signal had come from Young after the 15 seconds had passed.
New Zealand batting coach Luke Ronchi said he hadn’t spoken to Young about the prompt, but also that it was clear on the big screen that the batter hadn’t asked for the review within the stipulated time.

“I haven’t spoken to Young about this situation but, obviously, from our point of view, a bit disappointing the way it worked out. But also, when we look up on the big screen, it was after the time had run out,” Ronchi said. “So it was a bit of both notions. At the time of the game, you don’t want to be losing wickets. It’s quite tense and things like that. I think the whole situation, I guess, if you look at our point of view, a bit disappointed but then also you understand that he did actually tee it up after the timer had finished.”

Young was given out on the front foot to an offbreak from Ashwin, which was bowled from over the wicket, a rare mode of dismissal. The HawkEye projection showed the ball to be turning too much to hit the stumps, but Young’s signal to ask for the review came too late.

The DRS protocol states: “The bowler’s end umpire shall provide the relevant player with a prompt after 10 seconds if the request has not been made at that time and the player shall request the review immediately thereafter. If the on-field umpires believe that a request has not been made within the 15 second time limit, they shall decline the request for a Player Review.”

It was an important wicket for India in the dying moments of day four because the New Zealand openers had frustrated them in the first innings for 66 overs. Young had scored 89 then. On what looks like a new-ball pitch, New Zealand now have nine wickets to get the remaining 280 runs in. If they are to hold on for a draw, they will have to face the second new ball too.

However, Ronchi said they would look to bat positively, mainly because the pitch had not broken up as much as expected. “All three results are possible,” Ronchi said. “If we bat with some good intent and make most of the opportunities to score, we certainly believe we can chase it down. But, from the Indian point of view, they will be going in full of confidence they can stop us from doing that.

“There’s not a whole lot of turn in the surface. I don’t think many people expected the surface to hold up as it has. There is a little bit of variable bounce, but that is going to be the main thing.”

Ronchi said New Zealand needed to take a leaf out of the India batters’ playbook. “Just about being positive,” he said when asked what his message to the batters would be. “In terms of trying to get off strike, and being strong in defensive positions as well.

“And understand… they should take a bit of a leaf from the Indian batters in the way they played, they had a bit of positivity in their footwork and scoring options. That’s what we need to do as well. To [force India to] change fields and sort of bring that momentum in our favour. Then, hopefully, as time rolls on through the game, the more you do it, the lower I guess the total you are chasing becomes and just staying positive in the mindset and going from there really.”

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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