India defeated New Zealand by a resounding an innings and 198 in the third and final test match of the series. The visitors were bowled out for a meagre 175 runs in 51.2 overs in their second innings in reply to India’s mammoth 373 run lead in the first innings.
Spinners Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha wreaked havoc in the New Zealand batting line up. Harbhajan and Ojha finished with 3/56 and 2/67 respectively. The duo was responsible in making the New Zealand top-order bite dust. The tails were finished off by Ishant Sharma and Suresh Raina. The Kiwis were looking to take over the lead of 373 runs set by India and had lost a wicket yesterday itself.
Earlier on the first day of the match the Kiwis had again stumbled in front of the Indian bowling attack and managed a paltry 193 runs. In reply, India put itself in command of the match by displaying a powerful batting performance and piled up 566/8 before declaring the innings.
The test match was clearly dominated by the Indians as apart from the team win the batsmen registered some individual achievements. While Sachin’s dismissal at 61 spoiled Nagpur’s chances of witnessing the little maestro’s 50th test century, Rahul Dravid made up by his rock solid knock of 191 runs. But as Rahul missed out on a double century, skipper Dhoni too missed the opportunity of a century when he was dismissed at 98.
After the shameful 0-4 series defeat at the hands of Bangladesh Daniel Vettori’s team once again failed to live up to expectations and their helpless surrender to the Indian team in three days goes on to show yet again that not all is well with the Kiwi team.