New Zealand beat India in ‘series-opening’ Test
India suffer first loss in 8 matches in ICC Test Championship
PSG’s Idrissa Gueye (right), jumps for the ball with Bordeaux’s Samuel Kalu during the French League One soccer match between Paris-Saint-Germain
and Bordeaux at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on Feb 23. (AP) WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Feb 24, (AP): New Zealand have beaten topranked India by 10 wickets in the series-opening match, posting their 100th win in Tests and inflicting India’s first loss in eight matches in the ICC Test Championship.
India started play Monday at 144-4, 39 runs behind New Zealand after trailing by 183 on the first innings, and were dismissed for 191, a lead of only eight runs. Trent Boult took 4-39 and Tim Southee snared 5-61, his 10th five-wicket haul in Tests.
Southee completed match figures of 9-110, making a strong statement after his omission from the third test against Australia in January.
New Zealand knocked off the winning runs in just eight balls before lunch, finishing 9-0 with Tom Latham on 7 and Tom Blundell on 2. total.
New Zealand then took a major step towards victory when they removed Prithvi Shaw (14), Mayank Agarawal (58), Cheteshwar Pujara (11) and captain Virat Kohli (19) before stumps on Sunday, with Boult claiming three of those wickets.
Conditions in the second innings differed from the first. On the first day the ball seamed a little on a moist pitch and swung a little in heavily overcast condition.
By Monday the pitch had dried, hardened and the New Zealand bowlers used bounce and angle to worry the India batsmen.
Boult took the first wicket of the day, bowling around the wicket and from wide on the crease to dismiss Ajinkya Rahane (29), who played inside the line and edged to wicketkeeper B.J. Watling.
Southee dismissed Hanuma Vihari, who didn’t add to his overnight score of 15. In a brilliantlylaid trap, Southee enticed Vihari with two outswingers before bowling an inswinger which ducked back past the inside edge.
Ravi Ashwin also fell to Southee, trapped lbw by a fuller, straighter ball which might have been missing leg. Ashwin walked and didn’t consider reviewing the decision.
Ishant Sharma made 12, hitting a boundary which took India into the lead and meant New Zealand had to bat again. He also received an lbw decision with equanimity, falling to de Grandhomme.
Southee and Boult combined to dismiss Rihabh Pant - Boult taking a good catch from Southee’s bowling - and Southee completed his five-wicket bag with the dismissal of Jasprit Bumrah for 0.
“Day one it was probably the toss that turned out to be very important,” Kohli said. “But as a batting unit we take a lot of pride in being competitive and we were just not competitive enough.”
India’s Rishabh Pant bats against New Zealand during the first cricket Test between India and New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New
Zealand, on Feb 24. (AP) New Zealand’s Trent Boult celebrates the dismissal of India’s Ajinkya Rahane for 29 runs during the first cricket Test between India and New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand, on Feb 24. (AP)