Kanpur: The celebrations were already on before the start of match and it reached the crescendo on the 5th and final day at the Green Park, Kanpur. The 500th test for India ended with a massive victory as India completely overplayed New Zealand as the Kiwis crumbled to spin for the second time in the match.
The test followed a similar pattern for both teams in the first innings with the top order providing good and stable start while the lower order facing a collapse. For comparison, India were 154 for 1 while New Zealand were 159 for 1 at one stage but the innings imploded as India finished at 318 whereas New Zealand could muster just 262.
It was the second innings that made the difference as with an advantage of a 56 run lead, Indian batsmen showed great skills on a viciously turning track. They launched a calculated attack on the spinners to push them out of any rhythm. They faced a stutter in between as Murli Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, both scoring their second half century of the match, departed in quick succession. Virat failed for the second consecutive innings as he perished for just 18 runs. Things could have gone either way but an attacking unbeaten century partnership between Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja propelled India’s score to 377 for 5 to take the overall lead to 433 runs. Virat declared the innings with 4 sessions to go.
The pitch would be talked about a great deal but it was not that bad a wicket. If the batsmen were ready to apply themselves, there were plenty of runs on offer. A total of 10 half centuries were scored between both the teams in the match with 6 coming from India and 4 from New Zealand batsmen and this is evidence enough that there were no demons in the pitch as such. Another interesting thing that can be inferred from the game was that not a single batsmen reached the triple figures proving that no one was ever set on the wicket and the bowlers were always in with a chance, especially the spinners.
The New Zealand batsmen were given a target of 434 and they made an absolute disaster of it. The openers walked back even before the crowd could settle after the innings break thanks to Ravi Ashwin, who further got the 3rd wicket of the innings as he tricked the opposition skipper Kane Williamson for 25 runs. With the wicket of Anderson, not only did he break the spine of New Zealand batting but also became the fastest Indian bowler and second fastest in the world to reach 200 test wickets. Till the end of 4th days play, a disastrous run out of Ross Taylor meant that the Kiwis would start neck deep in trouble on the final day of the match.
India were expected to get the remaining Kiwi wickets in a hurry but they ran into some inspiring batting from young Santner and Luke Ronchi. Together they batted for more than 36 overs for a valiant partnership of 102 runs before Jadeja removed Ronchi for his first wicket of the innings. Thus began the procession as none of other batsmen showed any signs of giving a fight. Mohammed Shami displayed his art of reverse swing bowling with a quick 2 wicket burst and Ashwin walloped the remaining 3 wickets to end up with 6 for the innings.
Overall performance of the Indian team was upto the mark barring a rare failure for Virat and Rahane. Rohit scored crucial runs and Jadeja was all over the Kiwis like a rash with both bat and ball. He scored unbeaten 40 and 50 in the first and second innings respectively and also got 6 wickets in the match that included a fife-for in the first innings. Ashwin was again dependable with the bat and dangerous with the ball. And none the less, KL Rahul provided good starts with some decisive footwork and strokes but would need to carry further.
New Zealand would be happy with the performance of their spinners and to some extent the batsmen as well. Lathom, Williamson, Ronchi and Santners all got amongst runs and that should augur well for them for the series.
It was India’s moment and they seized it with both hands.
Scorecard:
India 318 & 377/5 (d)
NZ. 262 & 236