New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell on Friday said the third Test against India was "evenly poised" despite the hosts' top-order collapsed, handing the advantage to the Kiwis after the opening day's play of the final match of the series at the Mumbai Wankhede.
India did well to keep New Zealand to 235 after the visitors won the toss with Mitchell top-scoring with 82, but the hosts lost wickets in heap towards the end to be placed at a precarious position of 86 for four, trailing by another 149 runs.
"We put a total on the board (and) hopefully now we can take a few more wickets. We'll see what happens tomorrow (day two). The game is evenly poised right at the moment," Mitchell told the media after end of play on Friday.
Indian spinners Ravindra Jadeja (5/65) and Washington Sundar (4/81) shared nine wickets between them on the first day as the pitch provided plenty of assistance to the tweakers.
Mitchell said the conditions did not surprise the visitors.
"It's the nature of red soil here in this part of the world. It's going to have a bit of bounce and a little bit of turn. We knew what we were expecting when we showed up this morning," he said.
Mitchell expressed pride on New Zealand's performance as the Kiwis moved closer to beating India 3-0 and becoming the first visiting team to do so.
"It was pretty warm out there. The humidity was pretty sticky and there wasn't a lot of breeze. Us Kiwis, coming from down in the middle of winter back home, it's always a good challenge," he said.
"We're just a bunch of Kiwis taking on the world, having fun and trying to win games for our country. Hopefully, we can just keep chipping away like Kiwis do and we'll see what happens over the next few days," he said.
Mitchell said India were in strong position when Shubman Gill (31 not out) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (30) were batting.
Jaiswal and Gill put on 53 for the second wicket before the former's dismissal while attempting a reverse sweep sparked the collapse.
"That's the nature of Test cricket. There's always ebbs and flows throughout days. We were lucky to build some pressure. There was a nice partnership going there between Shubman and Jaiswal. I thought they played really well," he said.