Pune . Leftarm spinner Mitchell Santner claimed his second fivewicket haul in the ongoing second Test as New Zealand moved closer to a historic series win by restricting India to 1787 in 40 overs at tea on the third day at the MCA Stadium on Saturday.
India made a bright start at 811 at lunch, but the loss of six wickets in the second session means they are still 181 runs away from a very unlikely win, and the end of the game looks possible at some point.
Santner caused all kinds of trouble for India and took New Zealand to the brink of their first Test series win in the country. Now they will have to deal with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and the rest of the lower order batsmen, so that India has to face series defeat at home for the first time since December 2012.
The second session was started by the explosive Yashasvi Jaiswal, who completed his halfcentury in 41 balls. He hit a four off Glenn Phillips and then hit another four.
Santner took his first wicket when he caught Shubman Gill, who was at the crease, on a fast ball. The ball hit the outside edge in an attempt to flick it into the slips. Jaiswal hit four more fours and helped India chase the target. But Santner missed an easy catch in the slips.
More trouble came for India when Santner hit a straight throw from point and Rishabh Pant was out of the crease at the striker's end. The batsman was run out on zero on three balls.
Santner again performed brilliantly by getting Virat Kohli out LBW with an arm ball, then spun a ball from Sarfaraz Khan and blew the off stump, again taking five wickets. Glenn Phillips added his name to the wickettakers' list by having Washington Sundar caught on the batpad at short leg, capping a brilliant session for New Zealand.
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Image Credit: KhasKhabar.