Kane is able: New frontier as New Zealand pass Test

New Zealand enjoyed the greatest triumph in their cricket history as they beat India by eight wickets in the inaugural World Test Championship final at Southampton on Wednesday. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin reduced New Zealand to 44-2, but captain Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor shared an unbroken stand of 96 to seal victory. India was dismissed for just 170 in their second innings, and Rishabh Pant (41) was the only India batsman to manage a score above 30 in the innings.

MUMBAI: One major feature of this World Test Championship final was always going to be the battle between the two pace attacks. In their march to the final, New Zealand and India have benefitted from having a pace bowling arsenal unmatched in their cricket history.

While in Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma India had a potent attack, experts gave New Zealand a slight edge for the variety in their arsenal. Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson and Neil Wagner all have different strengths, complementing each other beautifully.

With the Test delicately poised at the start of the reserve day, the variety of the Kiwi pace arsenal helped them decisively turn the match in their favour by bundling out India for 170 in the second innings.

After the Sultan of Swing Tim Southee had made early inroads on Tuesday evening by prising out the openers, the 6 feet 8 inch Jamieson, the tallest bowler in world cricket, knocked down the door with telling use of bounce and movement in Wednesday’s morning session.

The pacer first removed India skipper Virat Kohli by inducing an outside edge, following it up with the wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara. Left-arm Boult ran through the middle order with three wickets, Wagner ended the resistance of Ravindra Jadeja and Southee finished off the tail.

The Indian batsmen’s weakness against tall bowlers is well documented. It was no surprise then that young Jamieson was the stand out performer. He got Kohli in both the innings, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant in the first and Pujara in the second to finish with a seven-wicket haul.

The Indian batsmen have not been comfortable facing deliveries released from 2.15m and higher (as shown in HT’s graphic on June 17), and the worst fears of their batsmen’s vulnerability came true. Since 2018, facing against high release points (2.15m plus) Kohli averages 36.66 and has been dismissed six times while Pujara has been out 10 times and averages 19.90.

It was brilliant to see how Jamieson set up Kohli and Pujara. In the first innings, he trapped the India No. 4 leg before with an incoming ball and ensured it played on the batsman’s mind by testing Kohli with nip-backers. Wary of the ball, and trying to work out how to deal with it, Kohli was more open than he normally is. And he was sucked into playing a false stroke outside off-stump, edging to the ’keeper. There was only one boundary for Kohli in both innings combined.

The CricViz Analyst data highlighted Kohli’s tentativeness against incoming balls. “Virat Kohli has shown clear vulnerability to nip-backers in the last few years.

Since the start of 2018, he averages just 22.35 against balls deviating back into him; he averages just 18.50 when those balls are on a good length,” the cricket analyst tweeted. It added: “Jamieson bowled 14 balls to Virat Kohli in that innings - 6 were false shots.”

Most of all, Jamieson’s accuracy stood out. Absolutely miserly in the second innings, he conceded just 30 runs in 24 overs, bowling 10 maiden overs. He removed Pujara (15 off 80 balls) by exerting such pressure. The batsman was ever watchful, but could do nothing when Jamieson pitched very close to off-stump, inducing the edge as the batsman tried to leave the ball late.

Used as back-up option, Wagner again underlined his utility value with an intelligent spell to Jadeja. Brought on by skipper Kane Williamson to break the resistance put up for the sixth wicket by Rishabh Pant and Jadeja, the left-arm pacer switched to around the wicket and peppered the left-hander with short balls. With Jadeja softened by a couple of blows into his ribcage, Wagner went wide of the crease to slip an angled ball to take the edge.

NZ’s most successful pace pair—Southee and Boult–shared five of the last six wickets to ensure the tail didn’t wag.