Sarfaraz Khan reveals secret behind his upper cut

Indian batting, led by Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant, made New Zealand work for wickets before folding against the second new ball on the fourth day of the first Test in Bengaluru. While Khan scored 150, Pant made 99 as India managed to put 107 for New Zealand as target on the last day.

Khan’s batting was chanceless and laced with strokes through the cordon and included upper cut which caught everyone’s eye. He hit plenty of those upper-cut shots that many cricketers in the past have played. The shot was immortalised by former India players Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag early this century.

Khan said after the fourth day’s play that he was well-prepared to play this shot as he had practiced this at home.

“I was very happy, this was my first century for India. When I started cricket from childhood, it was my dream to play for India and score a century,” said Khan to media after the game.

The Kiwi pace bowlers used their height to try and trouble Khan but he seemed to enjoy the bounce and rode his shots on it.

“I like bounce. I have a bouncy pitch at home too. I play there everyday, and there is plenty of good bounce. So I like it when there is pitch with bounce and if there is a bowler of height, I like to cut. If you’d seen, they tried to bowl short balls and bowl in those areas only. I enjoyed it,” added Khan.  

“They bowled most of the deliveries outside off-stump for me to cut. Wherever they gave me, I kept playing. It is not like I played in only one area. I just continued playing. Wasn’t seeing where the runs were coming.”

Khan and Pant added 177 runs for the fourth wicket to help erase the deficit. When the two were separated, India were 52 runs ahead.

The two drew upon their recent experience of a Duleep Trophy partnership where they added 72 off 56 balls to help India B beat India A.

“We had a Duleep Trophy game here recently, where we had to counterattack in the second innings. This was a similar situation. We had to score quickly. We were talking about how the Duleep Trophy days have returned. We said, ‘Let’s do it again’,” Khan recalled.

Khan said that even though the last seven wickets fell for 54 runs with India getting a lead of just over 100, the host are still in with a chance.

“This is not an easy pitch to bat on. According to me, the game is not out of our grasp. If we can get 2-3 of early wickets, then they will also struggle.”

Tags : Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, India cricket, New Zealand cricket, Bengaluru, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma