IND v NZ, 2nd Test Review: India completes impressive victory

Although New Zealand did show signs of staging a gritty fightback on the fourth day’s play at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, it was the hosts who boasted of the upper hand in the grand scheme of things. Wriddhiman Saha reached his half-century on the morning of the fourth day as he went on to net his second 50 plus score in the match.

With 120 being the highest successful run chase and 233 being the highest fourth innings score at this venue, it seemed improbable that New Zealand would reach this target. Moreover, what attested to this fact was that the Kiwis had not taken their score above 300 runs in the test match thus far. While all this was sounding amazing to all the fans, Virat Kohli perhaps had one thing in mind – wrap up the win as soon as possible.

Thus, Wriddhiman Saha and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took to the field on the penultimate day’s play in a bid to strengthen their stand on setting the target for their opponents. In spite of the reverse swing, the Indian batsmen did marginally well in terms of scoring runs. Saha, in particular, seemed to know his way around the difficult and somewhat diabolical track as he should have, especially with this being his home ground.

He was well supported by Bhuvneshwar Kumar who was continuing his swashbuckling from the previous day’s play. He added a few runs while Saha reached his half-century before a short-ball from Neil Wagner dismissed the unassuming Bhuvi. At 263, the Indians had set a lofty total of 376 for the Kiwis to chase.

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Tom Latham and Martin Guptill, two batsmen who have been struggling for form of late came out to face the vicious Indian bowling unit. While Latham seemed to be getting into his groove, Guptill seemed to be in a devastating form. He was trapped leg-before to a peach of a delivery from Mohammad Shami, only for umpire Rod Tucker to rule him not out.

In spite of that, both batsmen managed to stitch a 50-run partnership, they’re first of the series, something that saw them receive the credit they well and truly deserved. The Indians were to be frustrated by Latham and some impressive defensive work from his batting partners.

Latham piled on the runs after the tea break when he smashed the ball to different parts, taking calculated risks at regular intervals. the Kiwis were let off the hook by some shocking decisions by standing umpire Rod Tucker.

Ravindra Jadeja, who was earlier in the spotlight for showing dissent towards the umpire also was handed a warning by Tucker for running on the pitch and appealing excessively. Tom Latham was also handed a lifeline by Tucker shortly before the tea interval. It seemed as though the Indians would have to wait another day to complete the win.

The post tea session saw an incredibly determined India appear out of the dressing sheds to take the fight to the opposition. The break most certainly did something to galvanise the Indians into a force. And their target was to dismiss Tom Latham, the most dangerous of the New Zealand batsmen.

Ravi Ashwin was the one to create the breakthrough as Tom Latham was out to one of cricket’s riskiest shots in the book whilst finding the outside edge and into Wriddhiman Saha’s gloves. From then on, the wickets began to fall like nine pins as the Indians looked to polish off the New Zealand batting order before the start of lunch.

Matt Henry was the only one who gave some sort of resistance with a fighting 18 runs. However, in spite of this, the resistance was well and truly broken. The final wicket was claimed by Mohammad Shami when a top-edge from the bat of Neil Wagner found its way into the secure grasp of Murali Vijay.

The incentive for India and their victory saw them reclaim their spot as the best Test team in the world as they will now have to draw the final Test at Indore in a bid to keep their No. 1 spot in the Test rankings. Wirddhiman Saha received his first man of the match in Tests courtesy of his amazing batting in each innings.

Brief Scores:

India, 1st innings: 316 all out

New Zealand, 1st innings: 204 all out

India, 2nd innings: 263 all out (R Sharma 82; T Boult 3/38)

New Zealand, 2nd innings: 197 all out (T Latham 74; R Jadeja 3/41)

Man of the match: Wriddhiman Saha

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