Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja bagged his 14th five-wicket haul and Washington Sundar claimed four wickets to bowl out New Zealand for 235 but Indian batters committed harikari, losing three wickets in 10 minutes to slump to 86/4 at the end of the first day of the third Test at the Wankhede Stadium on November 1.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill had shared a half-century partnership for the second wicket, with the Mumbai opener surviving some anxious moments and scoring 30 off 52 balls, hitting four boundaries. He and Gill added 53 runs for the second wicket before Jaiswal started the 10 minutes of brain fade for the Indians, going needlessly for a reverse sweep with only three overs remaining for the day.
Jaiswal missed the reverse sweep off Ajaz Patel and the ball turned in to hit the stumps. Nightwatchman Mohd Siraj departed for a golden ball duck off Patel and India’s troubles were compounded when Virat Kohli ran himself out for four.
Skipper Rohit Sharma, who was put down by William O’Rourke near the fine-leg boundary, was caught by his counterpart off a thick edge as he shaped up to play defensively to a length ball just outside off-stump by Matt Henry.
Gill, who survived a chance as an edge off his bat struck keeper Tom Blundell on the helmet, struck Ajaz Patel for back-to-back fours and jumped out to hammer Phillips for a fine six. He and Jaiswal reached fifty of their second wicket partnership off 58 balls.
At stumps, Gill was batting on 31 with Rishabh Pant on 1 and India will look up to them to bat sensibly to take them as close to the New Zealand score as possible. India have done poorly in their first innings throughout this series, which has resulted in them trailing 0-2 coming into the Mumbai Test.
