IND vs NZ 2nd Test: Washington Sundar provides the X-factor as India storm back to bowl New Zealand out for 259

Washington Sundar celebrates a wicket with teammates on Day 1 of the second India vs New Zealand Test (BCCI Photo)

On a day when Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, two of India’s most lethal bowlers in home conditions, went wicketless, Washington Sundar provided the X-factor with stunning figures of 7-59 as New Zealand were bowled out for 259 on the opening day of the second Test in Pune. By stumps, India had made painstaking progress to 16 for 1, having lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma, their captain, bowled neck and crop for 0 by Tim Southee.

For the best part of two sessions, this was very much New Zealand’s day. On the stroke of tea, there were worry lines on the foreheads of both the Indian team management and the 10,000-off fans who had made it to the stadium in Gahunje, on the outskirts of the city. India had gambled on a dry, black-soil pitch that would aid the spinners from day one, but the expected procession to the pavilion never happened, with New Zealand cruising at 197/3 after 59 overs.

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Questions had been asked of India’s team selection too. Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist-spinner who had looked the most dangerous of India’s slow bowlers in the first Test in Bengaluru, had been left out, and Sundar had been drafted into the XI as a second off-spin option behind R Ashwin.

Sundar had taken six wickets in his previous four Test appearances, while averaging nearly 50. Over the first two sessions, he bowled tidily enough, conceding just 31 runs in 13 overs and causing an anxious moment or three. But there was none of the mystery associated with Kuldeep, and it seemed a peculiar selection when he was given the ball again just before the second interval.

After that, New Zealand didn’t quite know what hit them. Rachin Ravindra, scorer of a match-winning century in Bengaluru, had batted quite beautifully for his 65 (105) when he got a near-unplayable delivery that pitched on middle and turned sharply enough to evade the outside edge and hit off stump.

In Sundar’s next over, Tom Blundell fell to the classic off-spinner’s dismissal, bowled through the gate, and right after tea, Daryl Mitchell was trapped in front by one that darted in similarly. The on-field decision was not out, but Sundar called for a review straight away, and the Decision Review System (DRS) came down in his favour.

Glenn Phillips and the belligerent Mitchell Santner then defied India for ten overs before a careless hoick down the ground from Phillips went straight to Ashwin. Sundar then took wickets in each of his next three overs, with Southee, Ajaz Patel and Santner all clean bowled.

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The batters weren’t done in by flight and drift so much as deliveries that broke quickly off the pitch. Sundar quickly found the right pace to bowl on the surface and reaped the rewards.

Earlier, it was Ashwin that had made the initial inroads for India. Tom Latham was trapped in front in the eighth over, and Sarfaraz Khan’s sharp reflexes gave India a second wicket just before lunch. When Will Young sparred at one drifting down the leg side, there was little interest from any fielders others than Sarfaraz, who was insistent there had been a deflection. The DRS then showed that the ball had brushed the glove on its way through to Rishabh Pant.

Devon Conway, who played some pleasing drives while also riding his luck a little, made 76 and added 62 with Ravindra before dangling his bat at a slightly wide delivery from Ashwin. Even at 138/3, New Zealand seemed to be in front, and that changed only with Sundar’s introduction.

Back in 2017, on a similar sort of pitch, Australia scored 260 in their first innings and went on to win by a whopping 333 runs. The unheralded Steve O’Keefe was the destroyer then with identical figures of 6-35 in each innings. It remains to be seen if New Zealand can find such a match-winner in a game that is now finely poised.

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