There was no play on Day 1 and it took New Zealand all of 31.2 overs to bundle India out for 46 runs in front of a noisy Chinnaswamy crowd who had come to watch Indian batters stamp their authority. Instead, their bats were silenced.
India were all-out for 46 runs in 31.2 overs, floored by Matt Henry’s nagging length and seam movement, tall William O’Rourke’s lifting deliveries and Tim Southee’s swing. This was India’s lowest ever score playing at home and third lowest in history.
India’s capitulation raises questions whether the options they exercised were not bravado and bluster? Isn’t that the way Test cricket is played in the modern day, they might argue. As the hosts’ playing combination, picking the extra spinner in Kuldeep Yadav over pacer Akash Deep suggested, that’s how India were thinking.
India knew what they were signing up for when they elected to take first strike. The Chinnaswamy pitch had been under covers for three days and the openers had to mark their guard in front of overcast skies and artificial light.
Southee was the one to open the floodgates as he worked out Rohit Sharma by constantly challenging his outside edge with his outswing, before the sucker wobble ball did him. Rohit was castled at 2 when he attempted a heave to break the shackles.
To everyone’s surprise, Virat Kohli walked in at 3 for the first time in eight years and not KL Rahul. Shubman Gill was sitting out nursing a stiff neck. New Zealand skipper Tom Latham immediately took Southee out of the attack and introduced O’Rourke and a leg-slip. It took the young pacer just six balls to snap the big fish for no score.
Sarfaraz, who usually bats at No 5 for Mumbai was asked to take the coveted No 4 position and played the glory shot too early to gift Matt Henry his first reward. Sarfaraz became the second of the top eight Indian batters to fall for a duck – it happened only for the second time in history.
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Henry had smelt blood. He had been constantly challenging both edges of Yashasvi Jaiswal from over the wicket and finally got the young left-hander slashing at point on 13.
There was a rain interruption but there was no stopping India’s freefall with Henry being the wrecker-in-chief with figures of 13.2-3-15-5. O’Rourke continued his good work from the Sri Lanka series to finish with12-6-22-4.
