Stand-in New Zealand skipper Tom Latham had admitted their collapse in the first innings pegged them back despite Ajaz Patel’s historic 10-wicket haul as the Kiwis lost the match by 372 runs in Mumbai on Monday. (Most Cricket News)
The Black Caps lost the series as well having drawn the first Test match in Kanpur earlier.
“A disappointing performance from us. Credit to India for putting up a great performance. 62 all-out would always have set us back. You always want to bat first here, and it only gets worse for batting, and it wasn't how we wanted it to pan out,” said Latham, who led the side after regular captain Kane Williamson’s last-minute omission.
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Batting first India scored 321 on the back of Mayank Agarwal’s brilliant 150, before bowling out New Zealand for a paltry 62 in 28.1 overs. With a 259-run lead, India declared their second innings at 276/7 setting New Zealand an improbable 540 runs to win. New Zealand were all out for 167 runs on Monday morning.
“Guys are able to step up in different conditions and we have managed to get a lot of depth. Very special game for Ajaz, only the third time in the history of the game has a man got all ten,” said the southpaw.
Man of the Series Ravichandran Ashwin (4/34) and Jayant Yadav (4/49) did the bulk of the damage in the second innings. Interestingly, Ajaz Patel bowled 73.5 overs across two innings for New Zealand in Mumbai and his team, in total, batted 84.4 overs.
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Meanwhile, Day 4 morning hero, Jayant said they focused on bowling in the right areas and it gave them the result. “In the morning with Wankhede and pitch conditions, there was moisture and it helped, you could see the difference and we just had to bowl in the right areas,” said Jayant.
“Wankhede and Mumbai have special memories (for me), like you said I scored a hundred here, missed out on a 5-fer but helped the team’s cause. It was very useful to feed off his (Ashwin's) mind and he thinks about the game in a different way,” he said.”
