Mumbai Rishabh Pant's brilliant halfcentury went in vain as India were all out for 121 in their second innings chasing a target of 147, helping New Zealand register a historic 30 win in the threematch series at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. of.
With India needing to chase 147 to win the third Test on a turning and breaking track, Pant kept India's hopes alive with a brilliant 64. He was dismissed after taking India past the 100run mark and thanks to Ajaz Patel (657) and Glenn Phillips (342), India's path became difficult as the hosts suffered another embarrassing defeat. , which will also affect their chances of reaching the final of the World Test Championship.
With this defeat, India has now reached second place in the World Test Championship points table. At present, perhaps even New Zealand fans would not have thought about this situation in India. New Zealand itself had lost to Sri Lanka but they gave a bitter memory to India which the Indian team and Indian fans will not be able to forget.
With Pant at the crease, India had scored 926 in 20 overs by lunch on the third day, and needed 55 more runs to win the match and save their honour. But Pant was out soon after lunch and India's hopes got a big blow. Although Washington Sundar and R. Ashwin kept the hope alive, Ashwin and Akash Deep became victims of Phillips on consecutive balls and their fate was sealed with the dismissal of Sundar in the next over. This is the first time that a team has made a clean sweep against India in a threematch series.
Ajaz Patel, who took 10 wickets in an innings on his last visit to Wankhede, took 11160. He has now taken 25 wickets in two Test matches at Wankhede, the first guest spinner to take more than 20 wickets at any ground in India.
After New Zealand ended the second innings with only three more runs added to the overnight score of 1719, India had to chase 147 in the fourth innings to ensure victory.
Pant played a brilliant innings and kept India's hopes alive by hitting nine fours and a six and faced all the New Zealand bowlers with confidence. He and Ravindra Jadeja added 42 runs for the sixth wicket.
With 147 runs needed to win the match on a pitch with sharp turn and varying bounce, the Indian batsmen decided to be aggressive, taking inspiration from Pant's batting on Saturday morning.
Things went awry for India as Rohit Sharma (11), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan (i) failed to score as the score read 295.
Like in the first innings of this Test, Pant hit a powerful six off Patel and came forward on the track to drive it over the bowler's head. After this, he hit two consecutive fours off the ball of Phillips and delivered the ball to Ish Sodhi at longon and then hit another four. India scored 50 runs in the 11th over.
New Zealand could have dismissed Pant for 21 in the 12th over when the lefthanded batsman pulled a short ball pitched outside off from Patel, hitting the back pad. He decided not to take the review and was shocked when it was shown on the big screen that Pant was out.
After Pant's arrival, Jadeja (6 runs off 22 balls) had to hold on to the wicket, but he could not do so for long and tried to edge the ball out on the onside and Will Young was caught diving at forward shortleg. The catch was taken, taking the score to 716, leaving India needing 76 more runs to win the match with four wickets remaining.
Pant hit a brilliant four off Phillips and then completed his halfcentury in 48 balls by hitting consecutive fours off Patel and India's score at lunch was 926. In the second over after lunch, he hit two fours off Patel's ball, but on the fourth ball, the light edge of the defense hit the pad, which was an easy catch for Tom Blundell. Ultraage ruled in New Zealand's favor as Pant scored a brilliant 64 off 57 balls. Patel also took his second fivefor in the match.
India got lucky once again when the ball hit Ashwin's pads and hit the stumps, but the bails remained intact and the spectators heaved a sigh of relief. Later, Ashwin attempted to reverse wrongly and edged the ball to Blundell and on the next ball, Akash Deep was caught by Glenn Phillips.
Earlier, playing ahead of the overnight score of 1719, New Zealand's second innings ended in just 14 balls, with just three runs left due to the dismissal of Ajaz Patel on the third morning.
Jadeja took five wickets for the second time in the match, and finished with figures of 10120 in total, his second best after 10110 against Australia in New Delhi in February 2023. This was Jadeja's 15th fivefor in 77 Test matches, taking his total to 319 wickets.
The batsmen failed at Jadeja's performance and the team collapsed for 121 runs and lost the series 30. Ajaz Patel received the Player of the Match award and Will Young received the Player of the Series award.
I failed as a captain and a batsman: Rohit
After the crushing 30 defeat against New Zealand, Indian captain Rohit Sharma took responsibility for the defeat and said that he had failed as a batsman as well. Rohit said that it is not easy to digest this defeat.
“Obviously losing a Test, losing a series is never easy. We didn't play good cricket and we accept that. New Zealand played much better cricket than us. We made a lot of mistakes,” Rohit said after the match on Sunday. And we all have to accept that.”
In the first two matches, India was not able to score a big score in the first innings. Although India got the lead in the first innings in Mumbai, the Indian top order once again proved to be a failure in the second innings. Only four halfcenturies came from the top four in this entire series.
Rohit said, “We did not score enough runs on the scoreboard in the first innings, so we were behind in the match. But here we had a lead of about 30 runs in the first innings and we felt that we were ahead in the match. We achieved this target. Could have gone, we could have done better.”
Rohit also disappointed in batting in this series. Only one halfcentury came from his bat in Bengaluru. However, Rohit said that as a batsman he failed to implement his plans. Along with this, he also praised Shubhman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar.
Rohit said, “When I go to bat, I have specific plans in my mind, but the results in this series have not gone in my favor which is quite disappointing. (Gill, Pant and Washington) they told us that on this pitch We know how to bat here but things did not go our way in this series, which will hurt me as well. Didn't perform well and all this led to the defeat.”
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Image Credit: KhasKhabar.