Chhatisgarh's Ayush Pandey felt the secret to his success in the second innings was not allowing the Mumbai spinners not to settle down.
"Odd ball was turning and bouncing so my plan was to not let the spinners settle down. I wanted to make runs off the incoming balls and against Himanshu the plan was to make runs on the offside with the spin," he added.
Ayush was of the opinion that it was a tricky pitch to bat on.
"The wicket was difficult to bat on but I had a lot of belief in myself and the team also felt that the mistakes that we had made in the first innings would not repeat again. Our self-belief was very high that we would play the full day and draw the match."
The 22-year-old said he was not very surprised to see Mumbai skipper Shardul Thakur now bowling on the final day.
"There was not much help for the fast bowlers on the track," he quipped.
Ayush felt Chhatisgarh batters allowed Mumbai spinners to settle down in the first innings and that was their undoing.
"The mistakes that we made were that we allowed their spinners to settle down in the first innings. After that they started dictating terms to us when they got adjusted to their lengths," he added.
The young lad revealed that Himanshu Singh was the most difficult Mumbai spinner to play.
"Himanshu Singh was quite challenging. Since he has a good height and bounce that was making things difficult for us," he added.
Ayush gave an insight into his strategy and technique in the second innings.
"In the first innings I got stuck on the crease and this time I had made up my mind that either I would go all the way onto the pitch or stay on the backfoot."
When asked about how he had developed the hunger for runs and his improved success rate after his breakthrough season last year, Ayush had this to say.
"I had played in Buchi-Babu tournament and there it was more of turning pitches and there I was the man-of-the-series and scored 500 runs in four matches. From there I got the motivation and my confidence was sky high from there. Before this my performances were not good at the senior level. Then, I got my confidence boosted."
Then I scored an 89 against Delhi on a pitch that had some moisture and from there I have been growing," he added.
Ayush stated he would rate his third First Class century against Mumbai quite high.
"After following on I would rate this quite highly," he added.
Talking about his background, Ayush revealed that he always wanted to play cricket and shared his father's passion for the sport as well.
"My father was a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. I had a lot of interest in playing and it was he who got me admission in a cricket academy, Riaz Cricket Academy in Raipur."
