New Zealand created history as they recorded their first-ever Test series win on Indian soil. Mitchell Santner spun a web around the Indian batters and bowled the Kiwis to a famous win in the second Test in Pune. India lost inside three days and their batting crumbled against spin, crashing to a 113-run defeat.
Santner was the star with the ball in both innings. He absolutely dominated the Test match, picking up 13 wickets in all.
The day started with New Zealand 198/5, leading by 301 runs. Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips continued to resist the Indian bowlers and added 48 for the sixth wicket. It was Ravindra Jadeja who gave India their first wicket of the day by castling Blundell through the gate. India then struck in quick succession as Jadeja and Ashwin combined to get New Zealand nine down for 241. Glenn Phillips hit a couple of sixes before William O’Rourke was runout.
India needed to chase down 359 to level the series. It needed to be their third-highest successful run-chase in Test cricket history.
They started in dramatic fashion with Yashasvi Jaiswal going all out on the attack. The left-handed opener survived a close call on the very first delivery as an edge fell just short of gully. But he smacked his second ball for a maximum before hitting the next one for four to make his intentions clear.
Skipper Rohit Sharma started with a boundary as well. However, it just took Tom Latham three overs to introduce spin in the form of Santner. The left-arm spinner who took 7/53 in the first innings struck in his second over. He had Rohit caught at short-leg as the Indian captain suffered another failure.
That brought Shubman Gill to the crease and the young Indian batting duo looked in fine touch. Jaiswal, in particular, raced to his half-century which came off just 41 balls. Gill was batting solidly as well, getting boundaries regularly and rotating strike well.
Just as when the partnership threatened to put pressure on New Zealand, Santner struck again. He had Gill edging one to first slip. Jaiswal looked set for a big score and consistently got boundaries. But it was the wrecker in chief Santner who got rid of the dangerman for 77.
India collapse after Jaiswal’s dismissal
India’s state went from bad to worse as Rishabh Pant was runout on 0. Those two quick wickets stemmed the flow of runs and eventually, Kohli was out LBW to Santner. He was trapped on the backfoot on a ball that was sliding down. However, the umpire gave it out and it returned as umpire’s call on review.
Sarfaraz didn’t last long either as he was knocked over by Santner who completed his second five-wicket haul of the match. Washington Sundar who got a promotion to No. 6 made 21 but he was caught at short-leg to give Phillips his first wicket.
Jadeja and Ashwin batted for 12.3 overs and tried their best to resurrect the innings. However, Santner proved to be too good for Ashwin to break the resistance. Akash Deep played 24 balls for his 1 as Jadeja tried to do the bulk of the scoring at the other end. But things didn’t fall in place as Ajaz Patel came and wrapped up India’s run-chase with the last two wickets.
Both Deep and Jadeja holed out at long-on and New Zealand completed a dream series win. It is the first time India have lost a Test series at home since January 2013. Their last series defeat in India came in December 2012 when Alastair Cook’s men beat them 2-1.
Santner returned with 13 wickets in the match and was awarded the player of the match. New Zealand were down and out at the start of the series. They recently lost to Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka 0-2 but they bounced back magnificently to create history.
India’s road to the World Test Championship (WTC) final has only gotten tougher. They need to win at least four out of their remaining six Test matches to qualify. However, with five of those Tests scheduled in Australia, it is an uphill task.
BRIEF SCORES: New Zealand 259 (Devon Conway 77, Rachin Ravindra 65, Washington Sundar 7/59, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/64) & 255 (Tom Latham 86, Glenn Phillips 48, Washington Sundar 4/56, Ravindra Jadeja 3/72) beat India 156 (Ravindra Jadeja 38, Shubman Gill 30, Mitchell Santner 7/53, Glenn Phillips 2/26) & 245 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 77, Ravindra Jadeja 42, Mitchell Santner 6/104, Ajaz Patel 2/43) by 113 runs.
