Cricket

#INDvNZ-2ndTEST-2024 : As New Zealand Outclassed India By 113 Runs To Clinch Series ; Rohit Sharma Opens Up On The Disappointment And What Went Wrong For Team India

New Zealand outclassed India by 113 runs in the second Test to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series.

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A candid Indian Skipper Rohit Sharma chose not to place batters under the cosh for the series defeat against New Zealand but reminded them that they need to “trust their plans” to succeed against tough opponents.

Earlier, India collapsed to a humiliating series defeat at home, their first for 12 years, when they were bowled out for 245 by New Zealand in their chase of 359 on the third day of the second test as Mitchell Santner took six wickets.

The Black Caps won the opening Test in Bengaluru by eight wickets and secured their maiden series victory in India, with Mitchell Santner picking up 6-104 for a match haul of 13.

Santner ended with 6-104 for a match haul of 13 to set up the historic win and it was his senior spin partner Ajaz Patel who picked up the last two Indian wickets, including Ravindra Jadeja for a defiant 42, to settle the contest.

Chasing 359 to win, India resumed the third session at 178/7 but lost their remaining three wickets — Ravichandran Ashwin (18), Akash Deep (1) and Ravindra Jadeja (42) to get all-out for 245 in 60.2 overs.

New Zealand were bowled out for 255 in their second innings after skipper Tom Latham’s 86 and handy contributions lower down the order put them in a strong position to secure a first-ever series victory in India. Glenn Phillips ( 48) , Tom Blundell ( 41) scored vital runs

The defeat snapped India’s streak of 18 successive home series wins stretching back to 2012.

This was India’s first Test series defeat at home since 2012-13 when they went down to England 1-2.

“I do not doubt anyone’s ability. I won’t do much postmortem of this, but batters must come with their plans and trust on the plans like New Zealand batters showed,” Rohit said during the post-match press conference.

“It’s disappointing. It’s not what we expected. We got to give credit to New Zealand as they played better than us. We failed to respond to those challenges.”

Then Rohit touched in detail on the batting malfunction part.

“I didn’t think we batted well enough to get runs on the board. You’ve got to pick 20 wickets to win, yes, but batters have to put runs on the board.”

“It was a great fightback to restrict them to 250-odd (in the first innings) but we knew it was going to be challenging. It wasn’t a pitch where a lot was happening. Things would’ve been slightly different had we got a bit closer in the first innings,” he said.

Even though the series lost, Rohit promised a much better outing in third Test at Mumbai in a few days.

“We want to show up well at Wankhede and try and win that Test. It’s a collective failure. I’m not somebody who would blame just the batters or the bowlers. We will come out with better intent, better ideas and better methods at Wankhede,” he added.

The series defeat also dented India’s chances of progressing to the World Test Championship final despite keeping the top spot on the table.

Rohit accepted the consequences of a rare series defeat at home.

I am hurting because we lost the game. I can’t think about what lies ahead and can it affect our chances (WTC Final). We didn’t play well enough, and we lost the series and that is hurting. There are things we need to do as a unit,” he added.

 

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