5 days in 5 mins | Ind vs NZ 2nd Test 2021
India defeated New Zealand after winning the 2nd test by a record-breaking margin of 372 runs to win the two-Test match series by 1-0.
It all started on 3rd December when Kohli won the toss to bat. The first session of Day 1 was slogged due to wet out-fields. The injury of key players came as a blow to both teams. Where NZ missed Kane Williamson due to left elbow injury, India missed out Rahane, Jadeja, and Ishant Sharma for Shreyas Iyer, Kohli, and Jayant Yadav due to injuries.
The game kick-started in Session 2 with Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal opening for India. Where NZ bowlers were found struggling initially, both the openers gave a very impressive start for team India. Gill had his stance worked on, the gap between pad and bat was reduced, which made bowlers do work on their bowling to take Gill. But what happened after that simply intrigued the audience, raised questions on third umpiring as India went 81/3 from 80/0 in a span of minutes, credits due to Ajaz Patel
Ajaz’s spin sent Pujara and Virat Kohli for 0. Questions were raised on the third umpire for dismissing Kohli stating the absence of sufficient evidence to reverse the on-field umpire decision on whether the ball hit bat or pad first. Indeed unlucky dismissal for the captain.
Ajaz again broke the 80 runs strong partnership built by Shreyas and Mayank. However, Mayank stood strong to hit his 4th test century. Day 1 ended with Mayank’s century and Ajaz having 4 wickets in his bank giving evidence about how much this pitch is about spins and bounce. Imagine Jamieson and Southee ending a day without any wicket.
Day 2 (4th December) became the most sensational day of this series with Ajaz having the ball for most of the day who had already bowled nearly 40 over the previous day. He struck two (Ashwin & Saha) in two balls in his very first over of the day to get his best test career figure of 6/103. Axar got his maiden test half-century building a good partnership with Mayank who got to put his score of 150 for the team. And then came a record-breaking performance by Ajaz, who took 10 wickets in an inning to become just 3rd bowler in history to do so. Just one bowler Ajaz Patel sent team India to the pavilion in 3 sessions.
This began the 1st inning of NZ in the second session of the second day with 325 runs to the trail, to which India answered with a very aggressive start and dismissed the complete NZ team in mere 28 overs. Siraj took the top 3 batters and the rest was done by spinners as Axar took 2, Ashwin 4, and Jayant too got 1 as his maiden test wicket. New Zealand got all out for 62, the lowest they have ever scored against India.
India had the choice of giving a follow-up, which they didn’t take, and by the end of the day they were back to field for batting. Pujara and Mayank opened the innings with an attacking attitude. NZ bowlers had their bodies loosened. As they have been bowling for nearly 2 days and that too was majorly by Ajaz and Southee.
Day 3 was too partially dominated by Indian batters as Mayank went for another 50, Gill and Pujara 47 each. Kohli too had a good 36 runs. 2nd session NZ took the momentum by dismissing Gill as the maiden test wicket for Rachin, followed by Virat, Saha by Rachin only. Axar went to hit 41* after which India declared at 276. Now the total lead was 539 runs.
Ajaz took 14 wickets in this match.
Day3 ended with India quickly striking 5 wickets of New Zealand and was enthusiastic enough to dismiss the remaining 5 on Day 4 within 45 minutes of play. Jayant took 4 and Ashwin 1 to complete his 300 test wickets and most test wickets in a calendar year i.e. 52.