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PUNE: India’s Washington Sundar bowled with a career-best seven wickets and Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets to send New Zealand to the pavilion in 259 runs before the hosts were reduced to 16/1 at stumps on the first day of the second test at Pune on Thursday.
Rohit Sharma was dismissed without scoring a run, the Indian captain being bowled by Tim Southee while Shubman Gill was nine not out and Yashasvi Jaiswal was six not out at the close of a fascinating day.
Introduced into the side in place of Kuldeep Yadav after India’s eight-wicket loss in the hands of New Zealand in Bengaluru, Test match specialist Sundar ripped through New Zealand’s middle and lower order to return 7-59.
Today, what has happened is simply an answer to a dream that I have always wanted to come true. To be living the dream is an unbelievable feeling,” Sundar said. I have been hoping for this to happen in this certain series for a few weeks now. I am very thankful for how it happened.
One has only to look at when I had this picture taken: ‘I knew I was going to play this game two days ago.’ It’s a great opportunity because I wasn’t part of the squad to start the series with … to get this opportunity, I’m grateful to the coach and the captain.”
Ashwin captured 3-64 as India took advantage of the turn available at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium to bundle out the tourists after they had looked well set at 197-3.
As in the case of the first innings of the Black Caps’ series opening, Devon Conway fell nine runs short of a ton.
victory, 76, made while Ravindra got a good 65, it was Sundar who brought India to a dominating position.
Ravindra made 134 and 39 not out in the first Test and picked up from where he left off, reaching his fifty with back-to-back fours off Akash Deep as India’s shoulders drooped late in the afternoon.
UNPLAYABLE DELIVERIES
Sundar returned to the attack to lift the gloom with two unplayable deliveries that clean-bowled Ravindra and Tom Blundell (3) 10 minutes before tea was taken.
After the break, he came out to bowl to bundle out the visitors as Mitchell for 18, Phillips for 9, Southee for 5, Patel for, and the tourists are staring down the barrel.
With Mitchell Santner getting out on the last ball of the match for a brilliant 33, left-hander, the stumps were uprooted by another exquisite delivery from Sundar.
Conway was just the third batsman to get to fifty in the series in his fourth innings when he took on Bumrah in the first over after the restart to hit him for two boundaries.
He also uses the reverse sweep well but was caught behind after a wrongly judged drive off Ashwin, 531 of whose wickets placed him seventh on the all-time list, surpassing Australia’s Lyon.
A new version of the Kiwi openers’ stand began as New Zealand decided to bat and was going smoothly with Tom Latham and Conway surviving the early onslaught of fast bowlers, though India fought back by bringing in spin after seven overs.
Ashwin had Latham plum in front with one that spun away from the straight for 15 and Sundar too found that the black soil wicket offered him early help.
New Zealand continued to change the side that was set, feeding off the occasional loose ball, before Ashwin came close again, This time Will Young was caught behind for 18 after reviewing a soft signal leg before when he tried to play one fine down the leg side.
India has lost their last 18 home series since 2012 but that record is on the line after they lost the opening Test. The last match is in Mumbai early part of next month.
SCOREBOARD
NEW ZEALAND (1st Innings):
T. Latham lbw Ashwin 15
D. Conway c Pant b Ashwin 76
W. Young c Pant b Ashwin 18
R. Ravindra b Sundar 65
D. Mitchell lbw Sundar 18
T. Blundell b Sundar 3
G. Phillips c Ashwin b Sundar 9
M. Santner b Sundar 33
T. Southee b Sundar 5
A. Patel b Sundar 4
W. O’Rourke 0
EXTRAS (B-8, LB-2, NB-3) 13
Haryana (all out, 79.1 over) 259
FALL OF WICKETS: WELL, THAT WAS A THRILLER; Latham c Solia b Carson 32, Young c Patel b Carson 76, Conway c Alic 138 , Ravindra c Mitchell b Carson 197, Blundell c van Beek 201 , Mitchell c Wilson 204 , Phillips lbw Carson 236 , Southee c Wilson 252 , and Patel c KG 253.
BOWLING: Bumrah Eight overs maidens-32-0; Deep Six overs-41-0(1nb); Ashwin 24-2-64-3; Sundar 23.1-4-59-7(1nb); Jadeja 18-0-53-0 (1nb)
INDIA (1st Innings):
Y. Jaiswal not out 6
R. Sharma b Southee 0
S. Gill not out 10
Extras 0
TOTAL (for one wicket, 11) 16
FALL OF WICKET: 1-1 (Sharma)
STILL TO BAT: V. Kohli, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel
BOWLING: Southee 3-1-4-1; O’Rourke 3-2-5-0; Patel 3-1-5-0; Santner 2-0-2-0
UMPIRES: Paul Reiffel of Australia and Richard Illingworth of England
TV UMPIRE: Michael Gough (England)
MATCH REFEREE: David Boon (Australia)