Ajaz Patel’s celebrations following his perfect 10 against India in Mumbai were short-lived as he witnessed the New Zealand batsmen falling in quick succession. On a pitch where Indian batters put up a total of 325 in 109.5 overs, the NZ batters struggled against both spin and pace.
Mohammed Siraj pushed NZ on the back foot with big scalps of Tom Latham, Ross Taylor and Will Young right in his first three overs. Following Siraj’s early success, the spinners took over and dismissed the next 7 batsmen quickly to fold NZ for a mere total of 62.
NZ’s innings was over even before Ajaz could have rejoiced the moment as he was back on the field to share the new ball with Tim Southee in India’s second innings.
Following NZ’s batting debacle, former India opener Wasim Jaffer took to Twitter to hilariously troll them. He shared a picture of Amitabh Bachchan from a tourism advertisement and left everyone in splits with the post
For NZ, all-rounder Kyle Jamieson emerged as the most successful batsman and scored 17 off 36. He also faced most balls for his team. Stand-in skipper Latham was the only other batter who touched the 10-run mark.
For India, spinner R Ashwin once again stood tall and took a four-for in only 8 overs. Axar Patel dismissed 2 batsmen while Jayant Yadav scalped one wicket in 2 overs in his comeback game.
The Indian team decided against enforcing the follow-on and came out to bat again. Should India bat for another complete day, NZ can very well be asked to chase a target of over 500. The home team is leading by 263 runs (after the end of NZ’s innings). Courtesy of NZ’s brilliant batting display in the Kanpur Test match, the two-match Test series is levelled 0-0.
