New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said that their victory in the second Test within three days doesn’t give a reflection of how competitive the game was because if India had scored 50 more runs, the chase would have been hard for them. New Zealand won the first Test in Wellington convincingly by 10 wickets in a little over three days while they finished the second one by seven wickets a bit quicker as well.
“It’s an outstanding performance. I sort of said it recently but I don’t think the result reflected how competitive the match was. Perhaps another 50 more runs from the India’s perspective would have made it quite a balanced-looking match,” Kane Williamson said at the post-match press conference.
The pitch was not like the flat sub-continental tracks. Both the tracks for two Tests had a great balance between bat and ball where India batsmen failed to get going. Even New Zealand batsmen too didn’t do well compared to their bowlers. However, he said that the tracks favored the bowlers.
However, he praised the batting unit as well which helped them in the first innings of this game and in Wellington to put up competitive totals on the board on these tough surfaces. Moreover, he admitted that the pace on both Wellington and Christchurch tracks was similar to Australian conditions.
“Maybe not so much the sideways movement which we saw throughout. But that made a sporting balance between bat and ball. That was something that was a little bit new for us as well,” he said. “In the last two games, the reward was a little bit quicker because the surfaces were slightly different to what we have had in the past.”
For India, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari scored a half-century each in the first innings where they were bowled out for 242 on the back of 5-wicket haul from Kyle Jamieson. However, Mohammed Shami took a four-for, Jasprit Bumrah’s 3 and 2 for Jadeja restricted the Kiwis within 235 in the first innings.
However, a 4-for and a 3-for from Trent Boult and Tim Southee respectively dismantled India’s line up and they were bundled out within 124 in their second innings which was chased by the Kiwis with ease where Tom Latham and Tom Blundell both scored the fifties.
Before this series, India had won seven consecutive Test series which included West Indies, Bangladesh, and South Africa as well. With this, they placed at the top of the table with a whopping 360 points of ICC World Test Championship. Although they are still in that place, it is New Zealand who moved up to third place after this convincing win.
