Haren
An all-time low score at home, five ducks among the top seven, catches spilled, stumpings fluffed, their premier wicketkeeper hobbling to the dressing room injured, gloom and doom when they batted, sunshine and runs when they bowled; India would feel that the levers of fate were cruelly tilted against them on Thursday. Whatever could have gone wrong went wrong for India; contrarily for New Zealand, whatever could have gone right went right.
This was a day of two clear but disproportionate parts. As though it were two different games, unfolding in two distant postcodes, playing out to starkly contrasting beats. But the variance in weather and conditions — how nature pens the day’s script— is part of what makes Test cricket a spectacle.
One part lasted 31.2 overs; only 46 runs were eked out. Batsmen could barely locate the ball. When it found wood, it flew off its edges and shoulders. Boundaries were aberrations. Only four arrived. Like a morning sketched in Headingley or Christchurch, the ball rarely traversed a straight route. It curled and bent, like a car negotiating a hairpin bend. Batting was an ordeal. The overhead cloud-cover ensured that the moisture breathed on the surface.
Innings Break!#TeamIndia all out for 46.
Over to our bowlers now! 👍 👍
Match Updates ▶️ https://t.co/8qhNBrrtDF#INDvNZ | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/GhqcZy2rby
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 17, 2024
The New Zealand seamers couldn’t believe their luck. “Frankly, we never expected these conditions in India. Even with the cloud cover, we never thought we would get this much assistance,” admitted Matt Henry, who nabbed five scalps to complete a century of wickets in this format.
The other part of the day was a stark contrast. In 50 overs, New Zealand raced away to 180 for three, a lead of 134 runs. Opening batsman Devon Conway, gutted to self-destruct on 91 playing a reverse sweep, compiled nearly double of what India managed. When the New Zealand openers strode in, the clouds vanished into the distance. Shades of blue embroidered the skies. The assistance the surface offered the seamers dissipated. The Kiwi openers batted without ado, stroked fours and tickled singles, and eclipsed India’s score in 14 overs. Fours arrived like a stream — 22 were hit in all. Add three sixes that thundered off Conway’s bat.
It happens when the sun peeps out in the subcontinent — the moisture evaporates and the pitch transforms into a batting beauty. India’s task now is twofold — to bowl New Zealand out for as low a score as possible, and pile on a mammoth second-innings total.
“The wicket seems to be settling down a little bit, so we need to restrict them for as little as possible. We expect the pitch to play like that. We have got to bat really big in the second inning and try and see if we can make a game out of that,” said skipper Rohit Sharma.
Hardly any help
Staring at the unresponsive pitch, India’s seamers could fume at the unfairness of it. Jasprit Bumrah seared in with all his intensity, with the ground bathed in sunlight. Soon after India’s last-wicket pair walked back, he began bowling on the practice pitch at full pelt. In the game, he gave his all – his energy, wit and wisdom. Yet, the ball barely misbehaved. He could coax no demons from the surface.
Timber strike, ft. R Ashwin! 👌 👌
Match Updates ▶️ https://t.co/8qhNBrrtDF#TeamIndia | #INDvNZ | @ashwinravi99 | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/2T521mKJj8
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 17, 2024
His partner Mohammed Siraj, after two lively overs, tried too hard and ended up dishing boundary balls. The gifts never stopped coming for the Kiwis. Only two hours ago Tim Southee, New Zealand’s swing-seam merchant, had made one ball veer away in the air and swerve back after landing. The ball was not leaping as much as it had in the first session, though India didn’t possess someone of William O’Rourke’s strapping build.
Summons were sent to the spinners. Ravichandran Ashwin kicked in as early as the eighth over, Kuldeep Yadav in the 16th. Nothing worked. There was little turn on offer, even though a few balls kept low as the day’s progressed.
Doubt and anger crept in, misfields became frequent. Boundaries were leaked; catches dropped and reviews burned. Tom Latham’s outside edge whistled between Virat Kohli and KL Rahul in the slip cordon, Rohit shelled two catches, both off Ravindra Jadeja, now an embodiment of rage. “One bad day on the field could happen for anyone. In the last two matches, we have taken some good catches,” the captain said.
Ravindra Jadeja 🤝 Kuldeep Yadav#TeamIndia with a breakthrough 🙌 🙌
Match Updates ▶️ https://t.co/8qhNBrrtDF#INDvNZ | @imjadeja | @imkuldeep18 | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/Qr8THgdiqG
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 17, 2024
But the spilled catches would make them blush when they watch replays of New Zealand’s athleticism. Apart from the sitter Tom Blundell dropped off Rishabh Pant, they tigerishly clung onto everything India’s batsmen offered. Glenn Phillips swooped on Kohli’s catch that was dipping on him at leg gully. Conway flung to the right, his wrong side, and caught the ball that had almost flown past him. Henry sprinted from deep fine leg to deep square leg to pocket Bumrah’s miscued offering.
“We get days like that,” Rohit sighed. But days of such neatly demarcated portions are rare, but riveting no less.
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