If the possibility of facing the turning ball had made the New Zealanders wary, that was exactly what they had to counter as the Indians loaded their side with three spinners in Jalaj Saxena, Rakesh Dhruv and Sarabjit Ladda. And New Zealand’s weakness against spin even on the good batting surface was well exposed by Saxena, who returned figures of 6 for 106.
Given that the pitch was under covers for close to 24 hours, Tom Latham’s decision to bat after a 90-minute delay to the start because of a wet outfield was seen as a brave move. The top-order failure might have suggested that it was a mistake, but Ronchi’s seventh-wicket stand of 146 with Todd Astle (63) changed things. That helped New Zealand A script a remarkable recovery after being reduced to 106 for 6 halfway through the second session.
Earlier, Saxena’s introduction into the attack led to immediate success as he picked up three wickets in his first three overs to expose the fragility of the batting order. He first had Latham (15) caught at silly point to a delivery that spun away sharply to take the leading edge. That was followed by a delivery that skidded on to take Daryl Mitchell’s outside edge, which Chand caught low at slip to send the batsman back for a duck. In Saxena’s third over, Carl Cachopa (15) was deceived in flight and CM Gautam completed the stumping. New Zealand A had slipped from 46 for 1 to 55 for 4.
James Neesham (27) briefly resisted but Derak DeBoorder (0) didn’t last long as New Zealand’s innings was disintegrating alarmingly. It was then that Ronchi strode in. The Indians had placed a lot of chirping fielders around the bat but Ronchi expressed his intentions straightaway with a number of cuts and pulls, forcing Abhishek Nayar, the India A captain, to push the fields back in the hope of getting Astle on strike. But Ronchi’s confidence only seemed to rub off on Astle, who lent valuable support.
In many ways, Ronchi’s approach was what the pitch demanded. Unafraid to hit through the line, he attacked Saxena to briefly throw him off guard. The pacers too – Aniket Choudhary and Dhawal Kulkarni – were treated with disdain as he cut and pulled in front of square and India A were suddenly on the defensive.
Ronchi, who lived a charmed life early on after being dropped twice, raced away to his century off just 95 balls, and his downfall was perhaps due to a lapse in concentration. He was adjudged lbw while trying to pull a fullish delivery from Kulkarni. The last three wickets added 58 handy runs before the innings drew to a close in the 78th over.
Astle then induced an edge off Chand’s bat in the second over as New Zealand A capped off a perfect end to the day.
