Tom Latham, New Zealand’s captain, didn’t get the century his batting probably deserved, but his second-innings 86 has taken his side to the threshold of a historic series victory, against an Indian side that haven’t lost a red-ball rubber at home since 2012-13. At stumps on day two, after India had collapsed meekly to 156 all out in their first innings, New Zealand had made 198 for 5, an overall lead of 301. With so much time left in the game, even survival isn’t an option for India, whose hopes of making the World Test Championship final will take a serious hit if they suffer a shock loss in this series.
With the cushion of a 103-run lead, New Zealand came out for their second innings with positive intent. India opened the bowling with R Ashwin and Washington Sundar, the first-innings bowling hero, but the runs came freely as Latham and Devon Conway kept finding the gaps. Even after Conway was trapped in front by Sundar for 17, there was no letup in the scoring with Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja especially disappointing on a helpful surface.
IND vs NZ: India’s dismal collapse against Mitchell Santner puts unbeaten home record in jeopardy
Will Young made a sprightly 23 before Ashwin rapped him on the pads, and when Rachin Ravindra, New Zealand’s most accomplished batter in these conditions, fell cheaply to one from Sundar that skidded on, India were right back in the contest. But Latham added 34 with Daryl Mitchell and then 60 with Tom Blundell before being given out leg before to Ashwin. Though he reviewed, the DRS showed an ‘umpire’s call’ on impact. Latham’s game-turning 86 spanned just 133 balls.
Earlier, Mitchell Santner was the destroyer-in-chief as India collapsed in a heap either side of lunch. The tall left-arm spinner varied his speeds and trajectory cleverly, but was helped by some frankly awful shots.
Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal took India to 50 without much ado before Gill missed a straighter one from Santner. Virat Kohli, whose batting against spin has shown cracks for a while, missed a low full toss from Santner and was bowled, before Glenn Phillips’ part-time off-spin accounted for Jaiswal – caught at slip – and Rishabh Pant, to an ugly cross-batted heave. There was still time before lunch for Santner to have Sarfaraz Khan caught at deep mid-off and trap Ashwin in front with a shooter.
Jadeja flailed away for 38 after the interval, but once he fell leg before, Santner wrapped up the innings in a hurry. His 7-53 upstaged Sundar’s 7-59, and exposed India’s batters to even further scrutiny after the pathetic 46 all out in Bengaluru. It will take a miracle of Kolkata-2001 proportions for India to win from here, and there was little in their body language by the end of the second day to suggest that such an outcome was possible.
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