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WTC Final: 'Length did the trick' - Bangar on Indian pacers' success on day 5
WTC Final: Shami then did more damage as he bowled a peach of a delivery to rattle the stumps of BJ Watling.
Indian fast bowlers Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma brought their team right back into the World Test Championship (WTC) Final, by picking up three quick wickets towards the end of the first session on day 5 at Southampton against New Zealand.
Indian pacers had been quite ineffective as they had failed to pitch the ball higher up but all that changed when Shami sent back Ross Taylor. That ball was pitched up and Taylor drove on the up and a fine catch by Shubman Gill gave Indians the much needed wicket.
WTC Final Day 5 Live Updates - India vs New Zealand
Ishant got back into the act as he managed to induce the outside edge off Henry Nicholls to get his second wicket of the innings and India's fourth. Shami then did more damage as he bowled a peach of a delivery to rattle the stumps of BJ Watling.
Talking about how well the Indian pacers came back after failing to pick wickets in the first hour on day 5, former Indian batting coach and all-rounder Sanjay Bangar lauded them for changing their length.
"Massive difference, specially in the lengths that they bowled today. Earlier we saying that the lengths were a tad shorter, only 22 percent bowled in the 4 to 6 metre area, but now the percentages have gone up to close to 35 percent and that is why we can see a lot of opportunities being created due to the fuller lenth.
"You see the delivery that got Watling, it was on a fuller length. You see Ross Taylor, driving. You see Henry Nicholls again, dragged him on the front foot. So, the length has done the trick. All the homework they must have done the night before, has come to the fore," Bangar said during the lunch time show on host broadcaster Star Sports.
