India vs New Zealand: India climb atop Test rankings with emphatic win at Eden

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Quicks from both sides shared 26 scalps between them in the Test. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the leading man for India in the first innings with 5/48 while Shami rattled the opposition middle-order and lower half in the second with reverse swing on the fourth day.

62 runs, seven wickets

New Zealand went to tea break on 135/3 in 52 overs but lost their last seven wickets inside the next 30 overs, for the addition of just 62 runs. Shami took three of them, reversing one to trap Mitchell Santner leg before, sending BJ Watling’s off stump for a walk and bouncing out Boult. Kumar breached Jeetan Patel’s defence. Virat Kohli was indeed right. India have had all the bases covered, and the two seamers attested that with a combined tally of 12 wickets in the match.

And this wasn’t a case in isolation. Whenever they have been presented with a seaming-track challenge, Indian pacers have responded with an unerring consistency over the past 12-odd months – starting in Sri Lanka in August 2015. There, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Stuart Binny had gelled to take 23 wickets in three Tests.

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In West Indies this year, Shami, Ishant, Yadav and Kumar had shared 30 scalps between them in three completed matches. In Antigua, Yadav’s 4/41 and Shami’s 4/66 in the first innings had set up the team’s victory charge. At Gros Islet, Kumar’s 5/33 in the first innings tilted the game in India’s favour. Even in the first Test of the ongoing series, where the conditions were tailor-made for the spinners, Shami had made his presence felt with his reverse swing in the second innings. BJ Watling and Mark Craig had fallen prey to his charge.

A selection masterstroke

A Kolkata Test in September is a rarity and an active monsoon had affected pitch preparations. The Indian team management wanted less grass on the deck — understandably so, as spin remains India’s No. 1 weapon on home soil — but having been informed about the difficulties, they chose not to be insistent. Winning the toss and opting to bat first on a greenish surface, too, was a refreshing change from the previous regime.

Team selection was spot on as Kumar’s inclusion in place of Yadav proved to be a masterstroke. And then, when the team was under pressure in the second innings, the skipper played a scintillating knock against Ross Taylor’s ‘leg theory’ before he was done in by a grubber.

India always had strong affinity to individual brilliance and larger-than-life characters for achieving success but Kohli’s unit is showing signs of revelling in team effort. If Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were the leading lights in Indian batting in the first innings of this Test, Kohli and Rohit Sharma rose to the challenge at the second dig. R Ashwin braved a corn on his spinning finger and compensated the lack of turn with drift. He returned with 3/82 in the second innings. Ravindra Jadeja dismissed three New Zealand batters as well. An in-form Luke Ronchi was the most important of them.

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And Wriddhiman Saha was a notch above the rest to bag his first Man of the Match award in international cricket, in front of his home fans. His 54 not out in the first innings was game-changing. In the second innings, he remained unbeaten on 58 to give his team a hugely comfortable 375-run lead. Saha had played a very important innings (56) in Sri Lanka too last year but he failed to build on that. His maiden Test hundred at Gros Islet has proved to be the turning point, and now he seems to be comfortable in batting with the tail. He had added 41 and 35 with Jadeja and Shami respectively in the first innings. He put on 36 with Kumar in the second. And his keeping was world-class.

A patient captain

Depth is a reason for India’s success in all conditions. And calling this team a spin-track bully would be misappropriation of facts. Kohli responded with dignity when asked about the unfair tag. “We can’t think of external factors. We never do. Our aim is to win games of cricket anywhere and everywhere we play. We have shown that over the past one-and-a-half years. So we don’t go out there to prove anything to anyone. That we have a challenging win and we have to win because people are asking questions. We are doing our job, people are doing theirs,” he said.

Kohli is also steadily growing into his Test captaincy. He is a lot calmer now and doesn’t mind playing the waiting game, when the opposition is on top. After they were set a victory target of 376, the Kiwis had started well on Monday. Tom Latham, who was very impressive, using the sweep shot to great effect, and Martin Guptill started to build a partnership. But Kohli was patient, he didn’t try too many things and stuck to his plans. He knew that a couple of wickets would open the floodgates. The visitors lost wickets in clusters after Latham’s dismissal to concede the match and series. One final Test remains, and it remains to be seen whether New Zealand can prevent India from romping home 3-0.