New Zealand came to India on the back of their 2-0 loss to Sri Lanka, where they were done in by spin. India, on the other hand, under Rohit Sharma, were looking to continue their terrific form at home. The odds were stacked heavily in favour of the home team as the Kiwis had been struggling, coupled with the loss of their best batter Kane Williamson.
Tom Latham, who became the Test skipper after Tim Southee, stepped down is the biggest shining light. Speaking to the media ahead of the series, Latham had said that he wants to take the fight to India. The visitors did more than that as they dominated both the games in Bengaluru and Pune. When the final wicket fell, the Kiwis had done what no other team had been able to do for 11 years, 10 months, and 6 days.
By tea time on day three of the game, India’s grip over their home record was forcibly snapped. Mitchell Santner’s second fifer in the game and his brilliance on the field confined India to a massive loss. New Zealand were bowled out for 255 in the morning session to give the home team a target of 358 to win.
Mitchell Santner’s brilliance ends India’s record run
At one stage it looked like India will make a fight out of the run chase. Yashasvi Jaiswal survived a close call in the very first ball before he smoked Tim Southee out of the park, Rohit Sharma began with his characteristic pull to get going.
Rohit Sharma ventured down the track and played a half-hearted shot as the ball ballooned straight to Will Young. At lunch, India were placed at 81/1 from 12 overs as the massive crowd in Pune began to believe that a miracle was possible.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill added 62 runs for the second wicket in 59 balls. That stand ended when Gill was pouched in the slips by Daryl Mitchell to give Santner his 2nd wicket. Pune welcomed Virat Kohli with a huge roar as the master of run chases was expected to dig deep into the archives and help India once again.
With the score reading 127/2, Jaiswal misread the length of the ball and was caught by Mitchell in the slips. The left-handed batter scored 77 runs from 65 balls with the help of nine fours and three huge sixes. In the very next over, Kohli set off a non-existent run that saw Santner pick the ball cleanly and help run out Rishabh Pant for a duck.
The final ball of the 30th over saw Santner trap Kohli out LBW for 17. India’s former skipper went up for the DRS but that wasn’t enough as the call stayed with the umpire. Washington Sundar was given a promotion to bat ahead of Sarfaraz Khan. The latter came out at number 7 and was bowled by Santner for just nine runs. Glenn Phillips then swung the game in his team’s favour when he had Sundar caught by Young for 21.
With the Mumbai Test match six days away, a lot of post-mortem will be done. The forms of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be analyzed. The two veteran stars wouldn’t have expected such a result just a few weeks before the Australian tour. Rohit, in particular, has been in terrible form and his inability to play decisively has hurt India.
Once the final wicket was taken there was deafening silence on the ground with only the Kiwis celebrating. The Tom Latham-led team managed to restrict India to 245, claiming a 113-run win. The Black Caps have made it a habit of raining down on India’s parade in the past. Their win in the 2019 ODI World Cup semi-final moved MS Dhoni to tears. Their win on Saturday in Pune will certainly hurt more than India’s pride.