Good effort on this wicket: Pragyan Ojha

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It was surprising to see Mahendra Singh Dhoni turn to Pragyan Ojha to open the attack on Friday.

Not long ago, Dhoni was in the habit of using the left-arm spinner more for containing than as an attacking option.

But on a cloudy day at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium, Dhoni, after calling it wrong at the toss, chose to throw the new ball to Ojha.

It surprised many, not the least Ojha himself, as it was for the first time an Indian spinner was turning his arm over in the first innings of a Test match.

And the Hyderabadi, who has struck a good partnership with off-spinner R. Ashwin, justified his skipper’s decision.

Though the three overs in his first spell did not yield any wickets the persevering spinner struck to his discipline as he plucked out four wickets — including the key wickets of Martin Guptill and centurion Ross Taylor — to minimise the damage on Day One.

It wasn’t any special performance to root for, but considering the nature of the wicket, it could turn out to be valuable one.

“Once the toss was done, Dhoni bhai was very clear that I was going to open the bowling. I was ready for it,” said Ojha after his day’s work.

On a wicket which had slow turn and assisted the batsman more, the 25-year-old said sticking to ‘line and length’ worked for him. “I just stuck to the basics and made the batsmen play every ball.

There was some moisture on the wicket and sometime when there is moisture the ball does grip, so I wanted to make use of that. And it paid off,” he noted.

While the Kiwis would claim to have taken the day’s honours, Ojha said India too were pleased with their efforts. “Zak (Zaheer) bowled superbly in his first spell.

There was one catch dropped, and if that had been taken then it would have been a different story. I think Ash(win) and Umesh bowled well too. Taking six wickets on this kind of a wicket, which is not doing much, was a good effort.

“The kind of batting we have, I am confident we can put up a good score,” Ojha reckoned.