India are off to a great start in the three-match series against New Zealand as they won the first Test at Kanpur by 197 runs. It was a complete all-round performance from India as every member of the team contributed to the team’s success.
Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara’s twin fifties along with a 100-run partnership in both the innings, all-round show by Jadeja and Ashwin, Rohit Sharma’s crucial knocks and KL Rahul’s good starts were some of the positives for the hosts from the Test.
The visitors also had few players performing well but that couldn’t save them from losing by a huge margin. Mitchell Santner’s all-round show along with a decent show from Kane Williamson, Tom Latham and Luke Ronchi with the bat were some of the bright spots for the Blackcaps in the first test.
Let us take a look at who all performed well and who all failed to set to set the stage on fire.
Hits:
Murali Vijay: 141 runs
Indian opener Murali Vijay has been on fire since returning into the playing XI after he was dropped during the Test series against West Indies. In the first test against New Zeland, the right-handed opener looked solid as he notched up half-centuries in both the innings.
Murali Vijay made sure that the Kiwi bowlers did not take advantage of the new ball and allowed KL Rahul to play his natural game. He was focussed throughout his innings and shared a couple of century partnerships with Cheteshwar Pujara, that set the tone in both the innings.
Vijay scored 65 off 170 balls in the first innings before getting out caught behind when he tried to cut a ball that was closer to his body. In the second innings, he faced the same number of balls and scored 76 before Santner trapped him in front of the stumps.
Cheteshwar Pujara: 140 runs
Along with Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara was also a star of the show in India’s 197-run win. The Saurashtra batsman was in and out of the Indian Test team in the last one year and was dropped in the series against West Indies. Prior to this Test, Pujara had a sensational Duleep Trophy as he scored a 150 and a 250 in the two matches he played.
He carried on the form into the Test series against New Zealand and scored heavily, which laid the platform for the batsmen who followed him to put on a good total on the board. Pujara was often criticised for the pace at which he bats in Test cricket, but in the first test against New Zealand, Pujara came in all guns blazing as he scored runs at a faster rate.
Just like Murali Vijay, Pujara was unlucky not to have converted his fifties into hundreds as he got out for 62 and 78 in the match. The team management will want Pujara to continue his batting form throughout the season as India are scheduled to play 12 more tests at home in the coming months.
Ravindra Jadeja: 92 runs and 6 wickets
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is always one of the threats to the visiting teams in India as he is capable of troubling the opposition batsman on these tracks. The same happened in the first test against New Zealand as the visiting team was not comfortable against the slow left-arm spinner.
Jadeja had a memorable match and was rightly named the Man of the Match for his all-round efforts. He made a notable contribution in all the four innings of the first test and won the test for India.
In the first innings, when the team was struggling at the end of day 1, Jadeja scored a crucial unbeaten 42 and took India past the 300-mark on day 2. It was a big boost for India going into the test as they got a 56-run first innings lead, courtesy to the total posted by India in the first innings. He followed it up with an unbeaten 50 in the second innings and helped the team put on a decent score before the declaration.
With the ball, Jadeja was superb in the first innings and triggered a collapse on day 3. He picked up five wickets for 73 runs and made sure the Kiwis were bundled out before reaching 300. In the second innings, he gave the first breakthrough on day 5 and that opened the floodgates for the Ashwin and Shami to clean up the tail.
Mitchell Santner: 103 runs and 6 wickets
In spite of the loss in the first test, the visiting team will be happy about the way Mitchell Santner played throughout the match. With the wicket assisting the spinners, Santner took charge and bowled majority of the overs.
In the first innings, he bowled brilliantly and troubled the Indian batsmen every now and then. He picked up the important wickets of KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma to restrict India to 318 and recorded his best bowling figures in this format of the game, 3-94.
In the second innings, he continued his good work and got a couple of wickets to his name. When most of the New Zealanders struggled to face India’s spin twins, Santner was comfortable in seeing off their threat with ease. In the first innings, Santner scored 32 off 107 balls and in the second innings, he went a step further and scored his first test fifty.
He put on a fight in the second innings as he scored 71 off 179 balls and delayed the inevitable before his vigil came to an end, thanks to a brilliant delivery from R Ashwin.
R Ashwin: 40 runs and 10 wickets
If Jadeja doesn’t get you, Ashwin will. Ravichandran Ashwin is always a nightmare to the teams that visit India and the case is no different with the New Zealanders as well. The world no. 1 all-rounder in tests just showed why he belonged there as he starred with both bat and ball.
He scored a crucial 40 in the first innings and continued his good work with the ball too. In the first innings, Ashwin triggered a collapse on the first session of day 3 as he picked up the overnight batsmen, Tom Latham and Kane Williamson, who were threatening to take the match away from India.
His delivery to Kane Williamson was a beauty as the ball spun a long way and hit the stumps after pitching outside the off-stump. He accounted for two more wickets as New Zealand were bundled out for 262.
In the second innings, he dismissed both the openers very early and had the visitors reeling at 3-2. He also dismissed Kane Williamson for the second time in the test and accounted 3 more wickets. He finished with 10 wickets in the match.
Flops:
Martin Guptill: 21 runs
Martin Guptill continued his mediocre run in the tests as he got out cheaply in both the innings of the first Test. With his place in the Test team under threat, a lot was expected from the right-hander.
In the first innings, Guptill got off to a start before he was trapped in front by Umesh Yadav for 21. In the second innings, he failed to open his account as he tried to sweep Ashwin and the ball bounced off his boots before carrying to Murali Vijay at silly point.
With his place in the team hanging in the balance, New Zealand team management would like to have Guptill at his best when the second test starts at the Eden Gardens in four days’ time.
Ross Taylor: 17 runs
The last time when New Zealand toured India, Ross Taylor had a memorable series. His records against the men in blue show that he likes to bat against the opposition. This time, Taylor didn’t start the test in the way he would have wished to.
He was trapped in front off Ravindra Jadeja in the first innings for a duck and in the second innings, he was lucky to survive a close call. He was clueless against R Ashwin in the beginning, but somehow he scored some runs. He was dismissed in a bizarre way as a direct-hit from Umesh Yadav found the stumps at the non-striker’s end found and Taylor’s bat was hanging in the air. He scored 17 in the second innings.
The team management will hope for Taylor to come good in the remaining two tests.
Virat Kohli: 27 runs
The build-up to the series was all about the battle between the two best batsmen in the world, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson. While Williamson managed to score 100 runs in the test match, Virat Kohli failed miserably.
India’s skipper looked good in the first innings as he played some fluent strokes before he tried to pull Neil Wagner and was caught by Ish Sodhi at fine-leg for just 9 runs. In the second innings, Kohli looked solid, but he got out trying to slog sweep Mark Craig over the mid-wicket region and ended up getting caught by Ish Sodhi for 18.
27 runs in a test from Kohli is very poor considering the standards he has set for himself. He will look to bounce back in the remainder of the series and lead the team to a memorable series win.
Mark Craig: 3 runs and 2 wickets
Mark Craig came into the series as a spinner who can contribute with the bat. He has done it for New Zealand in the past and in the first Test against India, he failed to live up to the expectations.
With the ball, he took just 2 wickets and was smashed all over the park by the Indian batsmen. His stint with the bat was no different as he managed to score a combined total of 3 runs in the test. Jadeja trapped Craig plumb in front of the stump in the first innings and was done in by Mohammad Shami’s reverse swing in the second.
Craig won't take part in the remainder of the series as he is ruled out of the series due to a side strain and the New Zealand board has announced the experienced Jeetan Patel as his replacement.
Ish Sodhi: 2 runs and 3 wickets
When New Zealand humiliated India in the inaugural match of the 2016 World T20 earlier this year, Ish Sodhi ran the show for the Kiwis. So, a lot was expected from the leg-spinner from the series.
But, the Indian-origin spinner failed to meet the expectation, at least in the first test as he got only 3 wickets in the match. The Indian batsmen were comfortable while facing the leggie as they kept taking runs against him with ease.
His decision to bowl around the stumps didn’t work either as the batsmen were happy to see him off rather than taking him to cleaners. New Zealand’s fate in the series depends on how well Sodhi plays in the remaining two matches.
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