IND vs NZ | The Mitchell Santner Show in Pune hands India first home series defeat in 12 years

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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New Zealand became the first team since England in 2012 to win a Test series in India after a six-wicket second innings haul for Mitchell Santner saw the hosts collapse for 245 in a chase of 359. Yashasvi Jaiswal played a brilliant counterattacking 77 but his teammates couldn't replicate the effort.

Brief score: NZ 259 & 255 (Latham 86, Phillips 48*; Sundar 4/56) defeat IND 156 & 245 (Jaiswal 77, Jadeja 42; Santner 6/104) by 113 runs

New Zealand's incumbent batters Glenn Phillips and Tom Blundell got Day 3 off to a quick start by frequently rotating strike and finding the occassional boundary, adding 33 runs to their overnight stand of 15 within seven overs. It took a Ravindra Jadeja arm ball to finally deliver the breakthrough as Blundell failed to read the variation and lost his leg stump which triggered a cascade of wickets for the left-arm spinner ater he had failed to scalp any thus far in the encounter. The veteran had Mitchell Santner caught at slip and Ajaz Patel holed out in the cow corner region, either side of Ravichandran Ashwin deceiving Tim Southee with the flight, even as Phillips tried to singlehandedly keep sparks flying with his counterattacking shots. However, his damage was restrained courtesy some quickwitted thinking from Washington Sundar and Jadeja to run out an unsuspecting William O'Rourke and fold out the Kiwi innings for 255, thus setting India a mammoth target of 359.

The Men in Blue declared their intent immediately off the bat, courtesy of Yashasvi Jaiswal launching Tim Southee for a six on the second ball of the innings despite nearly falling victim the delivery before. The young southpaw dominated his 34-run opening partnership with Rohit Sharma until the skipper bat-padded a Mitchell Santner slower one to short leg in the sixth over. Nevertheless, Yashasvi kept gunning along and Shubman Gill was more than happy to keep up the tempo, the enigmatic pair combining for 47 runs off just 32 balls before Lunch to have the team well placed at 81/1.

The break made no impact on Yashasvi's momentum, who brought up a 41-ball half-century, but it was enough to enable the Mitchell Santner show. He began by squaring up Gill, batting on 21, for an easy catch at slip to break the 62-run stand. Six overs later, the left-arm spinner completed his first-ever first class 10-wicket haul when his natural variation went through Yashasvi's defenses to sound him the death knell, and added another crown to his gamechanging performance soon after with a brilliant fielding effort to run-out Rishabh Pant for a duck. The hosts thus suddenly found themselves reeling at 127/4 and never recovered from there. Santner went on to trap Virat Kohli LBW with a ball that would have clipped leg stump and slid one under Sarfaraz Khan's bat while Phillips bagged Sundar courtesy of a Will Young stunner to send the hosts into Tea at 178/7.

Rvindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin put in a last gasp effort to save India the blushes with a 39-run stand post the break but Santner once again spoiled the party and following a few late entertaining blows from the tailenders, the hosts succumbed to a 113-run defeat. 

Kohli is angry on umpire's decision!

That'a good hit!

That was some great connection!

What?

Bad day in cricket!

Expect the unexpected!

Yeah!

No comments on this!

LOL! 

Gotta make massive changes in team now!

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