IND vs NZ 3rd Mumbai Test: The Indian team has also faced defeat at the Wankhede Stadium. Chasing the target of 147 runs set by the opposition team in the second innings, the Indian team collapsed at 121 runs in their second innings. Batting at number 5 for the team, Rishabh Pant tried his best to win, but even his excellent half-century of 64 runs could not prevent the defeat of Team India. During the match, he faced a total of 57 balls. Meanwhile, he managed to score 64 runs at a strike rate of 112.28. During this, 9 fours and 1 six came off his bat.
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New Zealand won the series 3-0
The visiting team New Zealand has managed to win the series by defeating India 3-0. This has happened after 24 years in Test cricket when Team India has faced a clean sweep on home ground. Earlier in the year 2000, South Africa had defeated India 2-0.
Team India failed in achieving a small target
On the third day of the match, Team India was given a target of 147 runs to win. While chasing the small runs, the Indian team faltered many times. The team lost its first wicket of captain Rohit Sharma at 13 runs, after which the sequence of wickets falling did not stop. India lost 5 wickets at a score of just 29 runs. The faltering Team India ultimately had to face defeat.
While chasing the target, Team India was all out for 121 runs. During this, Rishabh Pant played the biggest innings for India and scored 64 runs with the help of 9 fours and 1 six. During this, a total of eight batsmen of the team could not even cross the double-digit mark.
Ejaz Patel wreaked havoc in Mumbai again
New Zealand’s experienced spinner Ajaz Patel’s havoc was once again seen in Mumbai. Ajaz, who took 10 wickets in an innings at Wankhede, this time managed to take 11 wickets in both innings combined. He got 5 wickets in the first innings, while in the second innings he managed to get 6 wickets.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli once again broke the hearts of fans
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who could not perform well in the first two Test matches, remained silent in the third match as well. Rohit Sharma could score only 29 runs in both the innings of the last match. Kohli’s performance was even worse. King Kohli scored only 5 runs in both the innings.
This was the condition of the whole test
In the match, New Zealand won the toss and decided to bat and put 235/10 runs on the board. In response, Team India scored 263/10 runs in their first innings. Then, coming to bat in the second innings, New Zealand was all out for just 174 runs and set a target of 147 runs in front of Team India. From here it seemed that Team India would win, but unfortunately Team India lost the match after being all out for 121 runs.
Playing-11 of both the teams
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep.
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wicketkeeper), Glenn Phillips, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Ajaz Patel, William O’Rourke.
The culprits of defeat: 4 reasons
1- There was no opening partnership
At one point in the Mumbai Test, victory seemed easy for the Indian team but the match slipped out of hand. The biggest reason behind this was the opening pair’s inability to form a partnership. Achieving a small score of 147 runs with two and a half days left in the match was not a difficult task for India’s strong batting order. The pair of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal could not give the team a solid start. The captain’s aggressive batting proved to be wrong for achieving the small score.
2- The middle order failed miserably
After the opening pair fails, the job of the middle order of any team is to stop the fall of wickets but this could not happen in the Mumbai Test. In the first innings, India lost 4 wickets for just 84 runs while in the second innings half the team had returned at the score of 29 runs. Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan were out after scoring 1 run each in the second innings.
3- Bad shot selection:
The way Captain Rohit Sharma got out against New Zealand while chasing a target of 147 runs, it was not necessary to play at that time. Talking about Shubman Gill, even after scoring 90 runs in the first innings, he failed to read the ball of Ajaz Patel in the second innings. He left the ball coming on the stumps and lifted his bat and the stumps flew away. Virat Kohli got out in both the innings of the Mumbai Test by hitting the ball with his bat like a child. If such an experienced batsman gets out like this, then it is natural to raise questions.
4- Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli fail together
The Indian team was disappointed when experienced Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli flopped in this series. The captain comes in the top order and scores runs in quick succession while Kohli handles the middle order. Nothing like this was seen in all three matches of this series. Rohit Sharma scored 2, 52, 0, 8, 18 and 11 runs while Kohli scored 0, 70, 1, 17, 4 and 1 runs in the five matches of the series. Both of them scored a half-century which is not enough considering their stature because these innings did not help the team win.
What did the Both Captains Say –
Rohit Sharma, India captain
I am unable to digest the defeat in the Test match and the series. We accept that we did not play well and New Zealand performed better than us. We made a lot of mistakes. In the first two matches, we did not put runs on the scoreboard and in this match the target could have been chased but we failed as a unit. When I go to bat, I go with a specific idea but in this series, the results were not achieved, due to which I am very disappointed. Pant, Washington and Gill told us how to play on such pitches. This was a series where our efforts failed. I also failed as a captain and I myself did not perform well. We could not perform well as a team, which became the reason for the defeat.
Tom Latham, New Zealand captain
I am very happy with the start of the series and the situation. This is a complete team effort. Daryl Mitchell performed well in the last match and Ajaz Patel performed well in this match. Our players played very well. We tried to adapt ourselves according to every ground. The seamers worked in Bangalore, different players performed at different times.
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