1st Test: Southee steers New Zealand to win
IND vs NZ 1st Test Wellington: New Zealand defeated India in the first Test of the two-match series at Wellington on Monday to take 1-0 lead in the series. While chasing a target of just 9 runs, Tom Blundell and Tom Latham took just 10 balls to register the 100th Test victory for New Zealand. On Day 4, India managed to add just 47 runs as Trent Boult and Tim Southee were dominating the Indian side in the first session.
Meanwhile, Tim Southee claimed his 10th five-wicket haul in the Test cricket. It was India's first defeat in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship. Southee was named man of the match for his total of nine wickets in the match that led to the victory of Kiwis. Kane Williamson had won the toss and elected to bat first. India scored 122 runs losing 5 wickets on the first day before the rain washed out the final session.
Rahane was the highest run-scorer as he scored 46 runs. In the first innings, the debutant Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee had picked four wickets each while Trent Boult bagged one wicket. For New Zealand, skipper Williamson scored 89 runs. Kiwis were 225 for seven but the last three wickets created a major difference as they managed to add 123 runs that led the team to the lead of 183 runs.
In second innings, India got off to a poor start as opener Prithvi Shaw failed yet again to keep the ball down and played it to the hands of Tom Latham at short square-leg. Meanwhile, Cheteshwar Pujara was not able to play his natural stance as he managed to score a total of 22 runs.
Likewise, Virat Kohli had a bad outing with the bat as he scored a total of 21 runs. With the victory in the first Test match, New Zealand also earned 60 points in the ICC World Test Championship points table and climbed to the fifth position with a total of 120 points.
India remained its top position in the table with 360 points while Australia is at 2nd position with 296 points.
-PTC News
