Ever since the New Zealand cricket team stepped their foot on Indian soil the chatter around the was the same as these are the practice matches for team India for their series down under later in the year. no one has given it a thought that this New Zealand team without their most prolific batsman Kane Williamson could even put up a fight against the mighty bowlers India has in their repertoire - the Ashwin, the Jadeja, the Bumrah. But cricket is not played on paper it's supposed to be played on the ground, albeit the only ball game in the world where weather conditions decide how to go about the game.
The pleasant weather of Bengaluru served their guest the most possible Home-like conditions possible for them and New Zealand Bowlers gleefully accepted their gifts. All they took a little over 31 overs to bundle out India's batting for 46 runs and made up for the loss of play on Day 1 of the test. This was the second collapse of such a nature in three tests but previously the Indian batting was bailed out by Ashwin and Jadeja who used their secondary skill to take India to a good score in that game against Bangladesh. But this was a different game against a different opponent and both Jadeja and Ashwin went back to the Pavillion in successful deliveries on duck. There were a total of 5 ducks in the first innings, the most in a home test as well as their lowest total in a home test.
Indian batting has not shown great stability in recent years but their bowlers have outperformed every opponent in every condition. So the battle for survival began for New Zealand batters. The batters started strongly, punishing anything loose from the bowlers, and kept the scorecard ticking.
Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra were the stars of the inning as they used their feet excellently to negate out any turn from Ashwin and Jadeja and never let them settle. The Ashwin-Jadeja duo have been the frontrunners in bagging wickets on home soil but they New Zealand were always ahead in their planning. They swept anything full, went back on short deliveries and used their feet to throw spinners out of the zone, and never let them settle.
New Zealand won the match purely on behalf of how well they had played Ashwin, it is evident that they had a plan against him to throw him off of his lengths so much so that of the 118 overs that New Zealand batted Ashwin had only thrown 18. They have played him so well that he was brought in as the 5th bowler on the last day.
This win from New Zealand has built the footpath that other visiting teams might follow, throw Ashwin off his length and one might win a test in India. As long as Ashwin can be put on ropes the more chances the opponent has to pull one up on India
The second test starts on 24th October in Pune and we will be there to see if this was a win assisted by the condition or the David has finally overcome Goliath.
