New Zealand v India, 2013-14
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Tour and tournament reports : New Zealand v India, 2013-14
Matches:
New Zealand v India at Auckland
Series/Tournaments:
India tour of New Zealand
Teams:
India
| New Zealand
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At Auckland, February 6-9, 2014. New Zealand won by 40 runs. Toss: India.
A riveting storyline contained several engaging subplots: McCullum's second Test double-century, an all-too-familiar third-innings collapse by New Zealand after they had declined to enforce the follow-on, and a fourth and final day in which the match hung in the balance. The upshot was New Zealand's first Test win over India since December 2002. But they were made to fight to the end.
Sent in on a green Eden Park drop-in pitch which offered early assistance, New Zealand quickly slipped to 30 for three. Then McCullum joined forces with Williamson to demoralise the Indians. Their stand of 221 was full of textbook strokes as the pitch flattened and the ball deteriorated, though not enough on a lush outfield to enable reverse swing.
There were tricky moments, not least when Williamson was dropped by Vijay at first slip off Mohammed Shami on 32. But after Williamson departed for 113, his fifth Test century, Anderson added to India's punishment, putting on a further 133 with his captain. From the last ball before lunch on the second day, McCullum swept Jadeja behind square for four to bring up his 200, from 280 balls, with 28 fours and three sixes. The Indians queued up to shake his hand. And he would have passed his Test-best of 225, made at Hyderabad in November 2010, had Jadeja not caught him while flirting with the boundary rope at long-on. That gave Ishant Sharma six for 134, but his team-mates' combined effort of four for 363 meant New Zealand had reached an apparently impregnable 503.
In the blink of an eye, India were ten for three. Boult snared Dhawan with his second legitimate ball, courtesy of a leading edge to gully, and had Pujara caught behind from an uncharacteristic waft with his sixth. Southee then humbled Kohli with a piercing bouncer which clipped the thumb of his glove, hit the grille of his helmet and lobbed to Fulton at second slip. Rohit Sharma resisted for 72 but, late on the third morning, India were all out for 202, a mammoth 301 behind.
McCullum chose not to ask India to bat again, mindful that eight sessions remained in the match. But in the 46 balls sent down before lunch, New Zealand subsided to 15 for four. Soon it was 25 for five and local thoughts turned to recent batting calamities - 45 at Cape Town in January 2013, then 68 at Lord's in May. Led by Shami, India showed real heart, but a tenth-wicket stand of 25 between Wagner and Boult meant the tourists would need 407, one more than they had ever made in the fourth innings to win a Test.
By the end of a tumultuous third day on which 17 wickets fell for 264 runs, India had knocked off 87 of them for the loss of Vijay. Pujara went next morning, but a stand of 126 between Dhawan and Kohli took the score to 222. New Zealand, though, kept chipping away, and tea was taken at 270 for five. When Rohit Sharma departed to the first ball after the break, Watling had the fifth of his eventual six catches - a Test record for the fourth innings.
Dhoni and Jadeja changed the momentum in a seventh-wicket stand of 54, and it was not until Dhoni dragged a pull from the tenacious Wagner on to his stumps that New Zealand could start to relax. Even that game-changer brought drama. With the left-arm Wagner, who finished with a Test-best match haul of eight for 126, routinely going wide of the stumps from round the wicket, and his back foot dangerously close to cutting the return crease, TV umpire Gary Baxter scrutinised replays to check for a no-ball; not everyone agreed he was right to send Dhoni on his way.
Three balls later, Watling held Ishant Sharma to equal a New Zealand Test record of nine dismissals in the match, and complete a victory that had appeared a foregone conclusion at the start of the previous day.
Man of the Match: B. B. McCullum.
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