Jadeja keeps India ahead amid Young, Mitchell fifties

Ravindra Jadeja (3-53) struck thrice in the post-lunch session to ensure India had a marginal advantage on the first day of the third Test against New Zealand in Mumbai. The left-arm spinner picked up the big scalp of Will Young (71), who looked a ton ready before removing Tom Blundell for a duck and Glenn Phillips for 17. Daryl Mitchell (53*) has struggled there, but now has only the tail for company on a surface that is increasingly helping the spinners.

Young and Mitchell got through the first hour without much trouble, even though the odd ball played tricks on the spinners. Both played with soft hands and used their feet well, in addition to bringing forward the sweeps to good effect. But as the session progressed, there was a striking twist that Jadeja exploited brilliantly. He deceived the well-placed Young with a lovely delivery that drifted in and spun sharply to find the outside edge. At the same time, Blundell was sent packing as he played back on a delivery that threw onto the leg stump and disrupted the release with a sharp turn.

Phillips rode his luck and hung with Mitchell for a while but the former was derailed by the trademark Jadeja arm ball that slid through and broke the leg stump. This scalp was historic for the left-arm spinner as he broke into the top five for most Test wickets by an Indian, overtaking Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma who had 311 wickets to their name. With the surface starting to misbehave significantly for the spinners, New Zealand would hope to stretch their total as much as possible as batting could become more difficult in the coming days.

Short scores: New Zealand 192-6 (Will Young 71, Daryl Mitchell 53*; Ravindra Jadeja 3-53, Washington Sundar 2-26) vs. India