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In the IND vs NZ 2nd Test on day 3, New Zealand won the first Test series in India under the leadership of Tom Latham. India lost the Test series at home after 12 years.
IND vs NZ 2nd Test, Spinners dominated the game
The Indian team has lost the Test series at home after 12 years. Despite a good start on the third day of the Pune Test, the Indian batting could not respond to Mitchell Santner’s spin and the visiting team had to face defeat by 113 runs. This is New Zealand’s first Test series win on Indian soil. With this win, New Zealand has taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
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India got a target of 359 runs after the pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed India cheaply on the third day. The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal started batting with an aggressive approach and initially, it seemed that the Indian batsmen had learned from their mistakes in the first innings. Both Rohit and Jaiswal used their feet and played sweep shots to counter the spin. Though Rohit was dismissed soon, by the end of the first session, India had reached 81 runs for the loss of one wicket.
Jaiswal was close to a half-century and along with Shubman Gill, had taken India’s run rate to more than six runs per over. India needed just one good session to get into the driving seat in the match, but the second session dramatically went in New Zealand’s favor and Santner was the architect of it.
IND vs NZ, Indian batting lineup collapse
After Gill returned to the pavilion, Jaiswal also could not last long. Both the batsmen were caught in the slips while trying to defend. Now the responsibility of taking the match forward from here was on Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant. However, Pant was a victim of haste and got run out. This wicket was enough to put psychological pressure on India. Santner, who had taken three wickets, paved the way for Pant to the pavilion by throwing a good throw from backward point to the striker’s end.
After this, India’s run rate also started slowing down and the spin also started moving a lot. Kohli also could not last long and was given LBW while playing the ball in front backward. He took a review but had to return to the pavilion due to the umpire’s call. However, DRS was not very kind to the Kiwi team today and the DRS taken on the appeal of LBW against Jaiswal twice was unsuccessful.
Sarfaraz Khan, who scored a century in the last Test, got caught in Santner’s loop this time and missed the defense and was bowled. From here, India was in danger of losing the series at home after 12 years, which was saved for some time by the pair of Ashwin and Jadeja. Both added 39 runs in 75 balls and as soon as Ashwin was out, defeat did not seem far away. Santner took some 13 wickets in the entire match, including seven in the first innings and six in the second innings.
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