India vs New Zealand: Tom Latham and Rohit Sharma© AFP
Rohit Sharma was a disappointed man after India lost the second Test of a three-match series against New Zealand. This is India first Test series defeat at home in 12 years with Mitchel Santner yet again exposing their frailties against quality spin bowling as the crushing 113-run defeat in the second match enervated the team’s pole position in the World Test Championship. If the hosts endured their first defeat after 18 consecutive Test series victories, New Zealand celebrated their first ever series-victory on the Indian soil in nearly 70 years.
Rohit said India failed to respond to challenges against New Zealand.
“Disappointing. It’s not what we expected. Got to give credit to NZ – they played better than us. We failed to capitalise on certain moments. We failed to respond to those challenges. And we sit here today. Didn’t think we batted well enough to get runs on the board. You’ve got to pick 20 wickets to win, yes, but batters have to put runs on the board,” Rohit Sharma said after the match.
“Was a great fightback to restrict them to 250-odd but we knew it was going to be challenging. When they started off, they were 200/3 and for us to come back and get them bowled out for 259 was a great effort. Wasn’t a pitch where a lot was happening. We just didn’t bat well enough. Things would’ve been slightly different had we got a bit closer in the first innings. We want to show up well at Wankhede and try and win that Test. It’s a collective failure. I’m not somebody who would blame just the batters or the bowlers. We will come out with better intent, better ideas and better methods at Wankhede.”
The Kiwis have been travelling to this part of the world since 1955 but Black Caps could never break the Indian citadel all these years.
Indian batters, once considered the best players of the spin bowling, danced to the tune of Santner, who dominated the home line-up with 13 wickets in the match, including seven in the first innings.
In pursuit of 359, Indian batters cut a sorry figure once again. The were were bowled out for 245 with Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s 77 and Ravindra Jadeja (42) being the only ones to resist the Kiwis.
India’s successive batting collapses, beginning with the historic low of 46 all-out in the first essay of Bengaluru Test which they lost by eight wickets, culminated with first series loss at home since 2012-13 when England vanquished them.
Kiwis broke India’s string of 18 consecutive Test series wins at home. It was also India’s only fourth Test series defeat in their own backyard since turn of the century.
With PTI inputs
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