“I manifested for this to happen in this Test” – Washington Sundar on his seven-fer in 2nd IND vs NZ 2024 Test

Indian all-rounder Washington Sundar was delighted after his brilliant performance against New Zealand in the first innings of the second Test match at Pune on Thursday. Sundar, who replaced Kuldeep Yadav in the final XI, not only bagged his first five-wicket haul in Test matches but also returned with his best bowling figures (7-59) in the red-ball version.

Sundar’s fine spell helped India skittle out New Zealand at 259 after Tom Latham decided to bat first. The Kiwis were 197-3 but lost the remaining seven wickets for 62 runs, with Sundar taking all the seven scalps.

The lanky off-spinner dismissed in-form Rachin Ravindra with a peach of a delivery and also dismissed Tom Blundell before tea was taken. After the break, he ran through New Zealand’s lower middle order in a jiffy.

“Amazing to be living the dream, I manifested for this to happen in this Test. Thrilled to be part of this test, grateful to the coach and captain, unbelievable feeling. To be honest, I wanted to be accurate, no matter what, it’s god’s plan and it came through really well, just hit the right areas, changed my pace here and there,” Sundar told the broadcasters after stumps on Day 1.

“We genuinely felt it’ll start spinning from Day 1, don’t think it did in the second session, but eventually it did,” he added.

Sundar, who was added to the team’s playing keeping in mind the number of left-handers in New Zealand’s line-up, picked Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell as his favorite dismissals.

“It’s unfair for me to choose, amazing feeling. Certainly, Rachin, he was getting into a decent position and also Daryl Mitchell’s wicket I enjoyed,” Sundar said.

Meanwhile, Sundar scored 152 runs in the Ranji Trophy clash against Delhi while batting at number three for Tamil Nadu and also scalped six wickets in the match, which ended in a draw.