India Win Test Series 1-0 To Score The Maximum Points In WTC Rankings Crushing New Zealand In Mumbai!
Whatever be the
reasons for not enforcing the follow-on, India had beaten New Zealand by a
mammoth margin of 372 runs in the morning session of the fourth day of the
second and last Test match in Mumbai today thus winning the series 1-0 and
scoring 42 in the WTC-2021-23 (World Test Championship) points table which is
the highest for all teams so far; but due to India’s winning percentage of
58.33 being less than Sri Lanka’s 100% and Pakistan’s winning percentage of
66.66, India occupy the third position at the moment.
The Wankhede
pitch, traditionally a bit difficult for free scoring, has been a mystery in
this test match. After two days of continuous rain in the city prior to the day
of start the pitch definitely had moisture underneath which should have helped
the Kiwi fast bowlers attacking the Indian batsmen on the first morning. However,
as it turned out, they, Southee and Jamieson prominently, failed to capture
even a single wicket in both the innings while India’s Siraj got three scalps
on the second day and Umesh Yadav also got a lot of help from the pitch. This leads
to the incredible feat of the Mumbai-born Ajaz Patel taking all the 10 India
wickets in the first innings and taking the tally to 14 in the match thus equaling
Kumble’s record. Of the other Kiwi spinners, Rachin Ravindra and Somerville,
only the former managed 3 wickets in India’s second innings.
Ajaz Patel’s feat
of being the third bowler ever to take all 10 wickets in a Test innings has a
unique twist as even after his incredible performance his team not only could
not win, but suffered a mammoth loss and he failed to qualify for the player of
the match or the player of the series. This was not the case with Jim Laker who
took 19 wickets in that match against Australia in 1956 or Anil Kumble who took
14 in that match against Pakistan in 1998 with their respective teams
registering huge wins over their opponents thanks to their feats. This does not
reduce Ajaz’s marvelous performance in any way, his misfortune is that he
happened to be a part of the losing team.
Mayank Agarwal was
justifiably declared the player of the match for his definitive 150 in the
first innings and 62 in the second innings. Ravichandran Ashwin was declared
the player of the series for his consistent performance of taking 8 wickets in
the match—4/8 in 8 overs in the first innings and another 4/34 in 22 overs in
the second innings—which never allowed the visitors to launch a comeback in the
match. Jayant Yadav chipped in with 4/49 in 14 overs in the second innings, restricting
New Zealand to just 167 all out. Axar Patel starred as a batsman in both
innings—extremely useful 52 and 41—apart from his 3 wickets.
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