SYDNEY: Encouraged by the perfect batting conditions and armed with a positive mindset, India will chase their first win of the series once Australia set them a target on the final day of the fourth Test, Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said yesterday.
Australia, 2-0 up in the series, have already taken an overall 348-run lead in the final match with four wickets intact and will declare early enough today to give their bowlers enough time to claim 10 Indian second innings wickets.
Rather than batting out the day for a draw, Ashwin suggested the visitors will try to chase down the target on a benign track at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
“We are here to play positive cricket and win games of cricket. If presented with the chance to try and go for a victory, we will try to go for it as sensibly as possible,” the 28-year-old off-spinner told reporters.
“We are here to win games of cricket, there’s no two ways about it.
“It all depends on how positively you can bat and the techniques you apply. Definitely it’s going to be a very positive game tomorrow, we will try and be positive about it.”
Underlining how good the track was for batting, Ashwin (50) added 65 runs for the eighth wicket with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (30), who was adjudged caught in a controversial decision.
“This was one of the slowest innings in my test career. I wanted to bat as deep as possible and put it into as many holes as possible and make sure that if any team won, it was India,” Ashwin, who has two test centuries, said of his 111-ball knock.
“But fortunately or unfortunately, the game is very well poised now, you don’t know which way it’s going to go,” said the Indian spinner. REUTERS
