New Zealand Create History With First-Ever Series Win in India

New Zealand turned in another remarkable display to beat India in the second test match at Pune and register their first series win against Rohit Sharma’s men at their home turf.

Needing an improbable 359 in the fourth innings to restore equal footing, India fell 113 runs short of the target as Man of the Match Mitchell Santner tore through their batting line-up once more. The left-hander finished with 14 wickets in the match, using the spinning track to bamboozle the batters.

The Kiwis had shown their intent from the very first innings, scoring 259 batting first on a tricky surface that got worse over time. Santner (7 wickets) and Glenn Phillips (3 wickets) took care of things with the ball knocking off India for 156 to put their side ahead. The visitors then battled through in their second turn, managing to score another 255 courtesy of Tom Latham’s 86.

India refused to go gently into the night playing their strokes to give their fans hope of a miraculous win until Santner returned to undo all their work and dash any such hopes taking 6 wickets in the second innings and 13 overall to seal a first test series win for New Zealand against India.

Before this loss, India had gone 12 years without losing a Test series at home with Alastair Cook’s England the last team to usurp them in 2012 with a 2-1 win during the 4-match series a mere 3341 days ago.

Gautam Gambhir’s men have faced plenty of flak in recent days for their inability to use favorable conditions to their advantage and the third day of Pune Test was no exception. With a Border-Gavaskar Trophy coming up and the series already gone, India may choose to rest its players for the third test beginning on November 1st.