The Indian team suffered another batting collapse in the second Test fixture against New Zealand on Friday (October 25) at the MCA Stadium in Pune. Batting first, the Black Caps posted a total of 259, with Rachin Ravindra emerging as the top-scorer with a knock of 65. Meanwhile, Washington Sundar, who played his first-ever test after three years picked up seven wickets.
In response, India lost skipper Rohit Sharma (0) heading into the close of Day 1, as Tim Southee breached his defense. The hosts started Day 2 on 16/1, and were slowly building momentum with the pair of Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
However, Mitchell Santner trapped Gill (30) to break his blossoming 49-run stand with Jaiswal. Then, Virat Kohli failed to put away the fuller ball, as he tried to play a sweep shot, which he isn’t habitual of throughout his career. As a result, the 35-year-old was bowled for 1.
Soon, Jaiswal (30) and Rishabh Pant (18) perished without converting their starts to big innings. Pant fell down to part-timer Glenn Phillips, as he couldn’t judge the bounce of the ball and was clean bowled.
Then, Sarfaraz Khan, who top-scored with a 150-run knock, tried to resurrect the innings. However, the in-form batter was dismissed by Santner for 11, which left India reeling at 95/6.
However, Ravindra Jadeja (38) came to India’s rescue as he employed a positive intent to play a counter-attacking knock. His innings was put to an end by Santner, who secured his third LBW dismissal after Gill and Ravichandran Ashwin (4).
In the end, Washington Sundar remained unbeaten on 18, as India were bundled out for just 156. Santner was the standout bowler with seven scalps, and helped the Black Caps secure a 103-run first-innings lead. At the time of writing, New Zealand are at 85/2 in their second innings.
Cricket Twitter reacts to India’s batting collapse against New Zealand
Fans were highly critical of India’s disappointing batting performance, as they gave away a sizeable first-innings lead to New Zealand. Most fans lambasted the batters for their inapt skills against the spinners, which have troubled them in the past as well.
The fans pointed out India losing the recent ODI series in Sri Lanka on rank-turners despite playing on spin-friendly tracks at home.
Here’s how they reacted on X:
Interestingly, New Zealand have a chance of scripting their maiden Test series victory in India. So far, they have played 36 Test matches on Indian soil, and have secured only three victories, with India winning 17 games. The first game of the series in Bengaluru saw New Zealand winning their first Test in India after 36 years.
