India (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.

New Zealand (Playing XI): Tom Latham, Tom Blundell, Kane Williamson(c), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling(w), Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Kyle Jamieson, Trent Boult.

Indian Batting

After losing the first test match against New Zealand, India is in pressure to win this game to equal the series. Already India lose their main fast bowler Ishant Sharma and also Ashwin has been replaced by Jadeja. Prithvi Shaw and Agarwal get down to crease, Prithvi Shaw is on strike. Southee opens the attack against India. Southee bags the player of the match for last three test in Hagley Oval, Christchurch.

Player of the Match in the last three Tests at Hagley Oval, Christchurch
Tim Southee 8/142 v Ban 2016/17
Tim Southee 7/127 v Eng 2017/18
Tim Southee 5/96 v SL 2018/19

Mayank Agarwal – Early departure

Agarwal and Shaw needs to build a strong partnership in order to set India towards a descent score. Shaw hits boundary nearly in every over until Agarwal lose his wicket to Boult. The smiling assassin Boult dismissed Agarwal by LBW where India also lost their review. Agarwal departure for just 7 runs.

50 Run partnership 

Cheteshwar Pujara and Shaw paired and strike in an controlled form as Agarwal departs the field in an early stage of the game. This duo moved India to  40 runs in 10 overs more importantly without losing wickets further.

Pujara vs Boult:
In Ind: 137 balls, no dismissals
In NZ: 101 balls, three dismissals

Drinks break

After a struggle of a session for the batsman – except Shaw, who seemed to be batting in a better form.

Shaw’s fifty

New Zealand lost a review against Pujara’s LBW where umpire sticks with his decision. Prithvi Shaw with a six reached his first overseas fifty and brings up the milestone in typical Prithvi Shaw fashion. But Jamieson puts an end to Shaw’s celebration by dismissing him for 54 runs.

Kohli’s failure – Continues

Indian skipper Virat Kohli who recently lost his NO.1 position in Test carrier gets in ground to prove himself. Kohli faceds the first ball from Jamieson and scored three runs and expect to execute his improved performance. Kohli survived till lunch without scoring further and Pujara stands for 15 runs.

Session – 2

Kohli’s unwanted review

It’s Southee who put an end to Kohli’s patience and dismissed him by a LBW. Kohli went to an unwanted review and lost India’s remaining review. Ajinkya Rahane pair with Pujara where India lose three wicket for 85 runs. This partnership too didn’t survive from Southee’s delivery. Rahane placed a simple catch to Ross Taylor and return pavilion after scoring 7 runs from 27 balls.

Most bowler-fielder dismissals for NZ (Tests)
27 R Hadlee – J Coney
23 T Southee – R Taylor *
22 C Cairns – S Fleming

Drinks break

Vihari dropped- luck favored 

Hanuma Vihari has been dropped for 9 runs in Jamieson’s over. India scored in an controlled form in order not o lose any more wickets. New Zealand bowlers placed two consecutive maiden over bowled by Wagner and de Grandhomme which shows India’s patience.

Pujara and Vihari’s Half century lead to 81 run partnership

Pujara scored his 25th half century in test by striking a single in Wagner’s delivery and also this half century count as his first in New Zealand. Vihari smashed couple of boundaries in Wagner’s over and reached his half century. And in the very next ball lose his wicket to Wagner for 53 runs and return pavilion. The 81 run partnership comes to an end that’s the expected break through for New Zealand.

Tea

India’s lower order failed to score further

Soon after the tea break Pujara lost his wicket to Jamieson and return to pavilion for just 54 runs from 140 balls. India lost 6 wickets for 197 runs and expect its lower order players to move further. Pant and Jadeja joins hand, after hitting couple of boundaries Pant returns to pavilion for 12 runs after losing his wicket to Jamieson.

In the same over Umesh Yadav who has been brought in for Ishant Sharma return pavilion for golden duck. Total of Four wickets for Auckland’s Kyle Jamieson in  the second test match. Jamieson took his fifty wicket by uprooting Jadeja for 9 runs. A fifer in his second Test match for Kyle Jamieson, who dominate Indian batsman and restrict India from scoring.

After hitting couple of sixes Shami lose his wicket to Boult and retun pavilion for 16 runs from 12 balls. India ends up by scoring 242 runs in total and lost their last six wickets for just 48 runs. 

New Zealand 1st Innings

Latham and Tom Blundell get down to the crease, Latham is on strike. Bumrah opens the attack against Kiwis. Without Ishant Sharma it would be a difficult task for India to control run flow.

This is the longest India have been wicketless with the first new ball since the SCG Test in Jan 2019.

New Zealand’s 50 plus opening partnership

Latham and Blundell faced Indian bowlers without any pressure where they hit boundaries more or less in every over. With a couple of boundary from Latham in Shami’s over New Zealand crossed 50 runs partnership without wicket loss. This is New Zealand’s first 50 plus opening partnership against India in home Tests in 20 innings across five series. 

The last instance was 56 by Bryan Young & Blair Hartland in Hamilton in March 1994 (Kapil Dev’s last Test). 

Day – 1 Stumps

Indian bowlers failed to break New Zealand opening partnership and ends day 1 When Kiwis scored 63 runs without any loss of wickets. Tom Blundell with 29 runs and Latham with 27 runs stand unbeaten in the ground.

Day-2

Session-1

U Yadav continuous the attack against New Zealand and took the first wicket of the day by dismissing Tom Blundell for 30 runs. Yadav provide the necessary break through expected by India. New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who took 89 runs in the first test match came in to attack.

Williamson’s early dismissal 

But Bumrah dismissed Williamson for just 3 runs that added strength for India. New Zealand lost two wickets for 69 runs including their skipper Williamson. Ross Taylor the man who leads New Zealand to a series win in ODI formats comes into attack. Latham and Taylor paired and dragged New Zealand to cross 100 runs with an impressive four from Latham.

Drinks break

Latham dismissed after his fifty

After the drinks break, Jadeja comes into attack and breaks the settled partnership by uprooting Ross Taylor for 15 runs. Henry Nicholls paired with Latham and continues the attack. Latham reached his half century in Shami’s over where New Zealand scored 127 runs for three wicket loss. At the end of the over Latham dismissed for 52 runs and return pavilion.

Henry Nicholls too return pavilion for 14 runs in the next Shami’s next over. Kohli took the catch and gets in joy as New Zealand lost five wickets for 133 runs. Session ends with Shami’s over where Kiwi’s scored 142 runs for five wicket lose.

Session-2

Kohli has his boys in a huddle. It’s a long, focused chat. He’s now leading them onto the field like a warrior. Bumrah to begin proceedings with two slips and a gully. But de Grandhomme hits the first ball towards boundary in Bumrah’s over.

Bumrah picks two wicket in an over

Watling lose his wicket to Bumrah, Watling is someone who will grind you down. India have got his treatment before. But he’s now gone searching for a boundary and played a really loose shot and lost his wicket. In the  same over Bumrah dismissed Southee that builds pressure over New Zealand players.

Kyle Jamieson gets in ground and takes his time to place the shot but cant able to build partnership as Jadeja uproots de Grandhomm’s wicket.

Jadeja to de Grandhomm in this tour

14 balls | 6 runs | 3 dismissals

Drinks

India came out firing after lunch, but CdG and Jamieson got some vital runs. Shami and Bumrah were impressive. Jadeja is now in the act, Umesh needs to step out if India are to gain any sort of lead. New Zealand will be hoping for the tail to wag.

50 run partnership from Kiwis lower order players

Jamieson and Wagner partnered for the ninth wicket and strikes steadily that adds 50 runs partnership for the next wicket. Finally Shami dismissed Wagner for 21 runs and breaks the partnership. Jadeja picks the catch in an extra ordinary way as it could ends up as the ‘catch of the year and perhaps the decade’. Shami took the final wicket by uprooting Jamieson for 49 runs just a run away for his fifty.

India – 2nd Innings

Kohli again failed

Prithvi Shaw and Agarwal get to the crease, Prithvi Shaw is on strike. Southee opens the attack against India. Boult dismissed Agarwal in his first over while scoring 8 runs. Prithvi Shaw dismissed by Southee while scoting 14 runs. The Indian batsmen are finding all kinds of ways to get out!

Indian skipper Virat Kohli gets in ground where everyone expect a huge comeback from him. Kohli failed to show his aggressiveness in batting and return pavilion for 14 after dismissed by de Grandhomme.

Longest sequences for Kohli without a 100 in international cricket:
25 Feb – Oct 2014
24 Feb – Sep 2011
22 Dec 2019 – present *

None of Indian players scored above 30

India lose its skipper after scoring 50 runs. Ajinkya Rahane gets in and paired with Pujara. Indian batsmen have no idea of striking New Zealand’s bowling order and starts loosing wicket in a regular interval. Pujara scored the highest of 24 runs while remaining players scored below 20 and returns pavilion.

Pujara vs Boult
In Ind: 137 balls, no dismissals
In NZ: 162 balls, four dismissals

Day-3 

India fold up for 124

Jadeja scored 16 runs off 22 runs and stand helpless in field as no one stand for a partnership with him. Finally India folds up for 124 runs in the 3rd day of the match.

Lowest targets successfully defended in NZ:
127 Pak v NZ Hamilton 1992/93
137 NZ vs Eng Wellington 1977/78
251 NZ vs Pak Dunedin 2009/10

New Zealand 2nd Innings

Kiwi’s needed 134 runs to beat India

Latham and Tom Blundell gets in the crease, Latham is on strike. Bumrah  opens the attack against New Zealand. Indian bowlers has to control the Kiwis from scoring and need to pick wickets in the beginning. Bumrah starts the innings with a maiden over. Before lunch New Zealand scored 46 runs without any wicket lose.

Session – 2

Opener’s fifty shocked India 

Latham raise his bat for half century after the lunch where New Zealand too crossed 50 runs in total. India struggled to break this partnership as they were very near to the victory with handful of wickets. New Zealand opening partnership leads Kiwi’s to cross ton without any wicket loss. Finally U Yadav dismissed Latham for 52 runs but no of the Indian players seems very much happy as Kiwi’s were just 29 runs away from their victory.

100+ opening p’ships vs Ind in 4th innings
142*A Rae – J Stollmeyer PoS 1953
125 J Blinks – J Bolus Mumbai BS 1964
101 Saeed Anwar – Shahid Afridi Delhi 1999
131 M Horne – G Stead Ahmedabad 1999
108 G Smith – A Petersen Joburg 2013
103 T Latham – T Blundell *

New Zealand beat India by 7 wickets

Tom Blundell dismissed by Bumrah after his 55 runs from 113 balls. The openers partnership ensure Kiwis win over India. With a single in Jadeja’s delivery New Zealand marks their 101st test win.

Captains winning most Tests after opting to field:
13 G Smith (19 Tests)
11 S Waugh (11)
10 C Lloyd (17)
09 K Williamson (13)*

The Whitewash series

The way New Zealand have flipped this, is quite surreal. They were tortured over the last few months, rubbing salt into the super-over wounds – against England, and twice in a row against India. Add to that the predicament of a 0-5 loss at home, and rockbottom had been redefined. And then it began: 0-3 in the ODIs, when the ghosts of the World Cup semi-final came back to haunt India, and they never recovered: they were tactically, technically outdone in the Test matches. Not to mention the serious lack of character from the batting, and the sporadic bursts of penetration from the bowling unit. It’s simply not good enough.

Player of the Match

Kyle Jamieson(New Zealand)

It’s been pretty surreal couple of weeks, just to be part of the group and win a couple of matches feels good. Pitch conditions obviously help and trying to find the fuller length and making decisions more often about the length and sometimes natural variations take over. It’s certainly time that I work on a lot on my batting, especially batting lower down the order and in both tests the partnerships down the order have made a difference. Having had a small taste of Test cricket, it’s important to work on things and come back better.

Player of the Series

Tim Southee for taking 14 wickets in total

Captain’s view

Virat Kohli | India captain (1/2): I think it was a matter of not having enough intent in the first game. We played well in the first innings here with the bat. We also need to give credit to the New Zealand bowlers, they bowled in the right areas long enough, created a lot of pressure. There were hardly any opportunities, that meant you have to play extravagant shots for runs than just keep rotating strike. It was a combination of us not having the right kind of execution and New Zealand playing well. The consistency of their bowling was outstanding, forced us to do mistakes. We are usually a batting side that fights. Batsmen didn’t do enough for the bowlers to attack. It’s disappointing as a side when the batsmen don’t back up the effort of the bowlers. To win series and matches outside home you need to have a balanced performance with bat and ball and in the field – take those chances as well. We need to go back, understand what went wrong and correct those things moving forward.

Virat Kohli (2/2): We are not a side that thinks about the result of the toss. Yes it did give a bit of extra advantage to the bowlers in the first two hours of each Test, but as an international side playing so well over two, three seasons, you are expected to go out and execute in those conditions. We were not able to do that this time. We are not going to take excuses from this tour, just the learning and the mistakes we committed and try and improve as we move forward. T20s were pretty good. In the ODIs it was good to see the youngsters stepping up with Rohit not being available and me not getting runs. Those are a few positives, but as a Test team we were not able to play the kind of cricket we wanted to. We need to accept we were not good enough, take it on the chin and improve those things.

Kane Williamson | New Zealand captain: Outstanding feeling. Fairly sporting surfaces in both Tests. Bowlers had to put it in the right areas, but this pitch played well on all the days, even though history suggests it flattens out after doing a bit initially. I think therein lies the value of the 30-40 run partnerships. I don’t think the end result shows how tight that match was. We saw how many times the ball beat the bat. A fantastic series from outside and the way the guys stuck in. India are a world-class side and to beat them is quite satisfying. Jamieson’s a very exciting talent, and contributed incredibly well with both bat and ball in both games. He’s tall and gets bounce which is very helpful in these conditions. The runs he scored in the backend of both games were very valuable. Great progress for him. The guys had to be disciplined, and the wicket was doing enough, but the fast outfields did allow runs, and it was important to hang in there. A few heavy learning curves, a few good bits in this summer, but these are all part of it. You’re always trying to improve and the two games here have been opportunities to learn too.