Bengaluru: When New Zealand arrived for their three-match Test series against India, many didn’t give them a realistic chance to win even one game. But outstanding performances with bat and ball, as well as seizing big moments, helped them get their first Test win in India after 1988 with an eight-wicket victory at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Set 107 to win and the start of final day of first Test delayed by rain, New Zealand were made to work very hard to get their runs, especially with a masterly Jasprit Bumrah displaying his extraordinary skill and control with the new ball to get two early scalps and was egged on by a raucous home crowd.
But Will Young, filling in at number three for injured Kane Williamson, made a solid 48 not out and got support from a free-flowing Rachin Ravindra’s 39 not out as New Zealand now becomes just the third team to beat India in India in the past decade and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
For India, despite showing bounceback ability in second innings before losing seven wickets to second new ball on day four, the decisions related to toss, team combination and crashing to 46 all out in first essay, came back to haunt them.
On the second ball of day five’s play, India got its first breakthrough in defence of 107 as Jasprit Bumrah trapped Tom Latham lbw for a six-ball lbw with the one seaming back in. With Bumrah getting the ball to talk, Devon Conway was jumpy at the crease due to the pacer beating both of his edges.
Young finally got New Zealand’s first boundary of the chase in eighth over when he glanced Mohammed Siraj for four. It was followed by a hopping and skipping Conway getting two boundaries off Bumrah. Young continued to be astute by hammering Siraj for two fours, before Conway put one off Bumrah through the gap for four.
Bumrah was finally rewarded for his persistence when he got one to swing in after pitching and beat Conway’s outside edge to trap him lbw for 17. Rachin Ravindra straightaway got into the groove by opening face of the bat to steer Bumrah through gully, before flicking off his wrists to get another boundary.
New Zealand inched closer to win when Young got two fours off Jadeja – one off top-edge going over keeper and other being a superb cut through point. Ravindra also cut Jadeja for four, before Young danced down the pitch to flick through mid-wicket for six off Kuldeep Yadav.
Ravindra continued to time his shots to perfection when he slammed a cracking drive and slog over mid-wicket off Kuldeep for two fours, before sweeping him through the gap at square leg for another boundary. Young brought up New Zealand’s hundred with a reverse-sweep off Ravichandran Ashwin for four, before he hit the winning runs through a cut off Jadeja beating short third man for four to get a memorable Test win for New Zealand.
Brief Scores: India 46 and 462 lost to New Zealand 402 and 110/2 in 27.4 overs (Will Young 48 not out, Rachin Ravindra 39 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 2-29) by eight wickets
–IANS