Pune: Left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner weaved magic with his 6-104 as New Zealand did the unimaginable by clinching a historic Test series win in India for the first time with a 113-run victory over the hosts on Day Three of the second Test at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium here on Saturday.
Not many had thought New Zealand would go on to win their first Test series in India, especially after losing 2-0 in Sri Lanka. They had a new captain in Tom Latham and ace batter Kane Williamson was not available due to a groin injury.
But New Zealand upstaged India by winning key moments in Pune to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Santner, who took 7-53 in the first innings, rattled India yet again with a remarkable spell of 6-104 to end up with match figures of 13-157, the third-best match figures for a bowler from his country in Tests.
Despite nursing pain on his right side, Santner varied his pace and trajectory and found enough help from a spin-friendly pitch to bamboozle the Indian batters and play a major hand in New Zealand doing the impossible in a convincing fashion.
The result also means India has lost a Test series at home for the first time since December 2012. The defeat to a tough and solid New Zealand side, after being bowled out for 245 in an uphill pursuit of 359, brings their unbeaten 18-series streak in Tests at home to an end.
Resuming with a lead of 301 runs, New Zealand added 57 runs before seeing their innings come to a close at 255 in the first hour. Glenn Phillips began by taking three boundaries off Ashwin before Ravindra Jadeja finally got his first scalp of the match by getting a straight ball to sneak through the gate of Tom Blundell and castled him for 41.
Jadeja then had Mitchell Santner holing out to long-on, before Ashwin had Tim Southee edging to slip. Shortly after, Ajaz Patel holed out in the deep to become Jadeja’s third scalp and despite two sixes from Phillips, William O’Rourke got a little complacent while completing the second run and Jadeja quickly dislodged the bails to catch him short of crease at the bowler’s end to end New Zealand’s innings, giving India a tough target of 359.
Yashasvi Jaiswal gave a thrilling start to the chase by heaving and punching Tim Southee for six and four, respectively, in the opening over. After Rohit pulled William O’Rourke for an easy four, Jaiswal danced down the pitch to smack Southee through cover for four more.
After Rohit’s inside edge lobbed up to short leg off Santner to dismiss him for eight, Gill straightaway got going with two superb sweeps off Ajaz Patel for boundaries before cutting off Santner for four more. Jaiswal continued to be aggressive by dancing down the pitch to drive Santner for four and followed it up by slamming a six over the bowler’s head.
He produced the shot of the session by dancing down the track and giving himself room to play a gorgeous inside-out shot over deep extra-cover for a big six off Glenn Phillips before Gill’s thick edge running to four off Santner brought the end of an eventful lunch session. The second session began with a blazing Jaiswal getting his fifty off just 41 balls with a whip off the backfoot going for four off Phillips and followed it up with a cracking cut fetching him another boundary.
Santner had his first wicket when he caught Shubman Gill at the crease with a quicker delivery, which took the outside edge on the attempted flick to slip. Jaiswal hit four more boundaries to lead India’s audacious charge of the chase but got a healthy edge on a forward defence off Santner to give a simple catch to slip. More trouble came in for India as Santner got a direct throw from point to catch a desperate diving Rishabh Pant well short of his crease at the striker’s end, and the batter was dismissed for a three-ball duck.
Santner again struck with the ball by trapping Virat Kohli lbw with an arm ball, then got one to spin past Sarfaraz Khan and peg back his off-stump to get a five-fer yet again. Glenn Phillips entered the wicket-taker’s list by having Washington Sundar catch the bat-pad at short leg to put New Zealand on the cusp of history. After reducing India to 178/7 at tea, the final session began with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja defending for nine overs before the former was lured into a drive on a ball from Santner which dipped and then turned to take the edge to slip.
Despite a few boundaries from Jadeja delaying the inevitable, New Zealand continued to strike as Akash Deep holed out to long-on, giving left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel his first wicket of the match. Jadeja became the fourth player to enter a rare club of 2000-plus runs and 200-plus wickets in Tests at home through his knock of 42. But him holing out to long-on off Patel made the way for an unforgettable moment in New Zealand’s cricketing history.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 259 and 255 all out in 69.4 overs (Tom Latham 86, Glenn Phillips 48 not out; Washington Sundar 4-56, Ravindra Jadeja 3-72) beat India 156 and 245 all out in 60.2 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 77, Ravindra Jadeja 42; Mitchell Santner 6-104, Ajaz Patel 2-43) by 113 runs.
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–IANS
Photo: IANS/@BLACKCAPS
