Having sealed the series 2-0 already, New Zealand completed a historic win in the third Test as well to whitewash India 3-0, their first whitewash ever at home in a 3-Test series.
The Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir era hasn’t gotten off to a good start, with India’s incredible home Test dominance coming to an end, thanks to some ordinary cricket from the hosts.
On that note, let us look at 5 reasons for New Zealand’s stunning victory in the third Test against India:
1) Daryl Mitchell’s knock of responsibility in the first innings
Having sealed the series already, New Zealand came into this Test with not much to lose. Nevertheless, they had a chance to whitewash India 3-0 in India, a feat no team had ever achieved in the past.
The pitch was turning right from day 1, and some peaches from Washington Sundar had New Zealand in trouble. That is when Daryl Mitchell played a vital hand of 82 runs. He was involved in quite a few handy partnerships.
He stitched up an 87-run partnership with Will Young, and later had three partnerships of 20-odd runs each with Glenn Phillips and the tail.
When it comes to hitting straight down the ground off spinners, there aren’t many batters in the world right now who are better at it than Daryl Mitchell.
He pioneered New Zealand to a reasonable first innings total of 235, and on a pitch that had so much in it for the spinners, that total was more than decent considering India had to bat fourth.
2) Dream passage of play for New Zealand at the dawn of Day 1
After bundling Tom Latham’s men over for 235, India started off well and seemed to be cruising at one stage with Yashasvi Jaiswal middling everything. However, the last 15 minutes of the first day changed the complexion of the game.
The left-handed opener had his furniture disturbed after he got out to Ajaz Patel trying to play a premeditated reverse-sweep in the second last over of the day. It was certainly questionable shot selection, and more so when the day was about to end.
Out walked the nightwatchman – Mohammad Siraj – who was trapped LBW first ball. These two wickets had already put India into a tricky situation.
If this wasn’t enough, Virat Kohli fell short of his crease in the last over trying to take a quick single. This Indian collapse put New Zealand in the driver’s seat. The home side lost the plot and ruined a day’s worth of hardwork with some bad decision making and game awareness.
3) Will Young proving his mettle with a magnificent half century
With each day, the conditions continued to get touugher to bat in. The ball was turning square, and on such a track, India’s first innings lead of 28 seemed substantial.
While the hosts would have sensed an opportunity to prevent a whitewash, Will Young stood tall for the Kiwis and played one of the best knocks ever by a visiting batter in India. He scored 51 off 100 deliveries, but a fifty on this pitch was probably worth more than a ton on another.
Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin had the New Zealand batters in all sorts of troubles, but Will Young found ways to keep the scoreboard ticking. He played the ball very late, and found gaps every now and then.
While Rishabh Pant’s fighting knock in the fourth innings has grabbed all the headlines, Will Young’s 51 was no less in terms of importance and impact on the game.
4) Glenn Phillip’s impactful all-round contributions
On a pitch where even the best batters of spin would struggle, Glenn Phillips had enough and decided to go after the Indian spinners. He came out all guns blazing, and scored 26 invaluable runs off just 14 deliveries.
He cleared the ropes thrice in this short little knock to turn the momentum around. While many would argue it was a risky way to bat on a turning Mumbai pitch, it was probably the right way to go about things.
He may have stayed out there at the crease for just 20 minutes, but he ensured that he put some pressure back on India during his brief stay in the middle.
He also rose to the occasion with the ball, getting rid of the dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal early in the fourth innings. Just when things started to get close, he also notched up the wickets of Ravichandran Ashwin and Akash Deep to wrap things up and complete New Zealand’s 3-0 thrashing against India.
5) Ajaz Patel spinning a web in Mumbai, again
Not too long ago, Ajaz Patel made history when he took all 10 wickets in an innings against India at this very venue.
A couple of years later, he now finds himself with 25 Test wickets at Wankhede, only behind Ravichandran Ashwin, Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev, having played there just twice in his career.
With two 5-wicket hauls and a total of 11 wickets in the game, Ajaz Patel took the bulk of the wickets for New Zealand on a lip-smacking pitch for spinners.
In the fourth innings of the game, he ran through India’s entire middle order, sending the likes of Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfaraz Khan and Washington Sundar back to the hut.