India’s Virat Kohli dives unsuccessfully to run out by New Zealand’s Matt Henry.
| Photo Credit: AP

India’s batters lost the plot in a matter of 20 minutes, leaving the side at a jittery 86/4 after Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar gave the hosts the early bragging rights by dismissing New Zealand for 235 on an eventful day one of the third and final Test here on Friday, November 1, 2024.

India’s rapid fall displayed their fast eroding confidence with the bat as Rohit Sharma (18) too was among those who fell without making a significant dent.

In between the loss of the team’s batting pillars, Jaiswal and Shubman Gill (31 not out) forged a 53-run stand for the second wicket before the closing stage collapse

But New Zealand’s biggest celebration came when a direct throw from Matt Henry ran out Virat Kohli for four runs.

Earlier, Spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar shared nine wickets between them as India bowled out New Zealand for 235 on day one of the third Test.

Will Young made 71 and Daryl Mitchell hit 82, after New Zealand elected to bat first in a bid to sweep the series. The tourists’ innings ended in 65.4 overs in the final session.

At the stroke of Tea, New Zealand posted 192/6, with Mitchell and Ish Sodhi unbeaten with scores of 53(96) and 1(7), respectively.

At lunch, New Zealand had their hopes pinned on Will Young for a long haul who batted well to reach 38 not out (3x4s, 1x6s), with Daryl Mitchell (11 not out) at the other end.

Washington’s identical strikes to remove skipper Tom Latham (28) and in-form Rachin Ravindra (5) helped India pull things back in control in the second half of the session as New Zealand appeared to be consolidating on a day one wicket, which had something in it for all parties involved.

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Coming off a 11-wicket match haul in second Test at Pune, Washington picked up rhythm soon after his introduction into the attack to keep testing the Kiwi batters’ defence.

It did not take him long to strike, drawing the New Zealand captain out to defend but beating him with the drift and turn on a delivery that pitched in the line of stumps in his third over, Washington beat the bat’s outside edge to hit the off-stump.

Kiwi batting sensation Ravindra suffered a similar fate on the fifth delivery that he faced off the Indian spinner, who again got the ball to drift and turn past the outside edge and hit the off-stump.

Earlier, with not much initial movement off the surface assisting the Indian pacers, the ploy to go a little fuller in length seemed to work well as Mohammed Siraj trapped Devon Conway (4) in front of the wickets but a thick inside edge saved the opener in the third over.

However, Akash angled one into the left-hander which beat Conway’s bat to pin him out leg-before, with New Zealand also burning a review against the on-field call.

While Latham consolidated from there on, using the sweep shot to a good effect, Young once again showed his array of strokes and composite defence as a solid No 3 batter for the Kiwis.

Young went after anything that had width on offer to collect boundaries and having studied R Ashwin (0/20) quite well for the ace Indian spinner’s first three overs, he did not have any hesitation in shimmying down the track to clear the ropes over midwicket.

Teams

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj.

New Zealand: Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Ajaz Patel and William ORourke.