Watch cricket video highlights of New Zealand tour of India 2024. First test between India and New Zealand. Venue of the match will be Bengaluru.
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With the second new ball, New Zealand continued to take wickets, dismissing India for 462, leaving them with a target of 107. The new ball was taken at 400 for 3, which means India lost 17 wickets for 108 runs against the first and third new balls they faced. The lowest fourth-inning score in India is 83. William O’Rourke carried his match-changing performance into the post-tea session, scoring a toe-end on a draw from Ravindra Jadeja. At one point, his spell said 3-3-0-3. R Ashwin withstood the storm, scoring 15 runs, but Matt Henry caught him with one that nipped back in and remained low.
With the new ball still moving, the last two wickets had little chance. Henry cleaned up Nos. 10 and 11 in the same over. This was Test cricket stripped of all its luxuries. Sarfaraz and Pant, who combined 170 in 35.1 overs, put immense pressure on the bowlers as India attempted to become only the second side in history to win a Test after a sub-50 first innings. This identical strategy led to a breakdown as the second fresh ball began to nip about. This was high-variance Test cricket.
India lost 17 wickets for 108 runs against the first and third new balls, but scored 400 for 3 in 80 overs with the other ball. India’s strong scoring rate meant that the second new ball was New Zealand’s final chance. If they had not caused any damage with the fresh ball, they could only have hoped for a draw. Considering how they had been battered and rendered useless for 80 overs, it took tremendous talent and perseverance with the new ball to surge back into the game. In under 20 overs, they drew 43 false shots from India, compared to 72 in the first 80.
Much of it was due to Sarfaraz swinging his bat in an attempt to blast the new ball, but who dares argue that strategy after he reached 150 with equally minimal respect for the bowling. Pant attempted to bat his way out, gloving a sweep off Tim Southee and slog-sweeping him out of the stadium before playing on the 6’6″ William O’Rourke with the replacement ball on 99, his seventh dismissal in the 1990s to go with six hundreds. O’Rourke was on fire with the new ball, going 3-3-0-3 at one stage, before Matt Henry found the perfect seam to finish off the last three.
It demonstrated how much you fall behind when you’re bowled out for 46. Sarfaraz and Pant improved on their previous score of 231 for 3 on day three. They were both inventive and thrilling as Under-19 World Cup teammates. Sarfaraz converted his first Test hundred into a 150, making it his 11th first-class score of 150 or more out of 16 hundreds. Pant, who missed the keeping duties due to a knock on his surgically repaired knee from a life-threatening car accident, matched him in chutzpah.
However, his pace was limited, and he converted at least two partnerships into singles as he reached the hundred mark. He walked back with a wistful gaze to the sky. If Sarfaraz experimented with late-cuts and ramps while ducking and weaving, Pant slog-swept fast bowlers and rushed at them, hitting them beyond mid-off. With five sixes, he surpassed Kapil Dev and became sixth among India’s greatest six-hitters in Test matches. Prior to the new ball, the only time New Zealand came close to a wicket was with a run-out opportunity at Pant’s end.
But Tom Blundell saved him for the second time in the match by leaving his base to catch a wide throw, appearing oblivious of the possibility at his end. The pants were only on size six at the time. As Pant eased into the innings, scoring 12 off the first 24 balls he faced, Sarfaraz needed just six balls in the morning to unleash his cheekiness: a casual ramp off O’Rourke’s first ball of the day. Sarfaraz continued to split the field even after they added a deep third and a deep point. Pant soon joined him.
They showed no care for the field-sets and little fear of making mistakes, and the New Zealand bowlers once again failed to offer Tom Latham with control. Ajaz Patel was the biggest letdown, as he spun the ball less than part-timer Rachin Ravindra. The seam bowlers appeared to try to trap Sarfaraz lbw, but this simply resulted in easy singles down the leg side. When the keeper came up to the stumps to root Pant to the crease, the visitors were rewarded with an edge, but the fading pitch lacked enough life to carry.
Soon after, he lofted Southee from the crease for a six over his head. Sarfaraz smashed Southee to deep cover in the eighth over of the day for what would have been a single for any other batter, but his late-cuts had pushed all of the fielders back. The barrier evoked an emotional hundred. When Ajaz got one to kick at Pant from the rough, the glove took the most of the blow, and the ball went right down. He decided he needed to assault. In a thrilling Ajaz over, he hit two sixers. Then he withstood both an inside and outside edge at the same time.
The inner one protected him from LBW, while his back pad prevented New Zealand from catching off the outside edge. Pant still managed to knock one more four in the over, giving India 47 boundaries, which is more than they scored in their first innings. A downpour provided some reprieve, but India continued to assault before the new ball, increasing their run rate back to five per over. At first, it looked that New Zealand had run out of luck in securing the conditions to bowl India out for 46 and dismissing Rohit Sharma in the second innings.
For the time being, everything has just begun to progress or fall into place. Sarfaraz withstood seven different types of fake shots before ultimately lobbing one to cover as the ball veered away from him. Pant, who was not quite comfortable with the new ball, attempted a sweep before dropping jaws on the floor with the slog-swept six to reach the 90s. Then came O’Rourke, who had been pumped up for four first-balls that morning. This time, his initial ball nibbled back and kicked at Pant, taking the deadly bottom edge and quieting the crowd.
His additional bounce and seam movement away also helped KL Rahul. Then one gently emerged off the surface to grab the toe end of a Ravindra Jadeja draw. Henry bowled an unbroken 10-over period to keep the score low and capture the final three wickets, adding to his five in the first innings. While India supporters had gone from begging for the rain to stop to wishing for biblical thunderstorms, they were not thrilled when they were told to get off early due to terrible lighting, which subsequently turned into a major storm. The new ball was moving, and India hoped to cause some damage under artificial lighting.
