After toiling through in difficult circumstances with the bat and paying off heavily for its same old bowling issues abroad, India was finally relieved of its misery early on Day 4 of the Wellington Test as New Zealand took a 1-0 lead in the two-match series with a rampaging ten-wicket victory this Monday (February 24).
The visitors after losing the toss and being put into bat on a green top were bundled out for just 165 in the first innings where Ajinkya Rahane top-scored with a watchful 46 and Mayank Agarwal (34) was the only other Indian batsmen to reach the 30-run mark.
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Even the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli found life extremely difficult facing Kyle Jamieson (4/39), Tim Southee (4/49) & co.
With the ball, even though veteran pacer Ishant Sharma bagged a five-fer (5/68) and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (3/99) tried his best in conditions offering him next to nothing, their efforts weren't enough to bring the Indian team back in the contest as Jasprit Bumrah (1/88) and Mohammad Shami (1/91) disappointed everyone.
Through Kane Williamson's magnificent innings of 89 runs, backed up by able middle-order support from Ross Taylor (44) and a tail that wagged big, New Zealand was able to surpass the poor Indian first-innings total by an intimidating 183-run margin.
In the second essay, the visiting batting line-up struggled for each and every run again as Agarwal (58) became the only Indian to reach the fifty-run mark in the Test, with no one from the rest of the unit reaching 30.
Trent Boult (4/39) and Tim Southee (5/61) did major damage as India got dismissed for just 191, setting up a target of only 9 runs, which the Kiwi openers Tom Latham (7*) and Tom Blundell (2*) took virtually no time in reaching.
For such a marquee series, an important part of the World Test Championship cycle, the result obviously didn't go unnoticed as the cricket fraternity gave its views on the game which exposed India's longstanding fallacies in those conditions and the team inspired no confidence of a comeback in the next Test in Christchurch, starting February 29.
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