Marvelous New Zealand Win In Bangalore
Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat first under a thick cloud cover on the first morning at the fast drying KSCA stadium in Bangalore. India named three spinners in their eleven. New Zealand named three fast bowlers. India’s theory of the match was that the pitch was dry and would turn. The new ball might pose a challenge, but on a dry pitch, it would not be unusual.
It was unusual. Matt Henry, Tim Southee and Will O’Rourke extracted more movement from the fresh Chinnswamy pitch than any fast bowlers have in India in recent memory. Southee and Henry got more than 1 degree of seam movement on average. India were shot out for 46 and had to then bowl with three spinners in conditions which offered the spinners almost nothing and no first change fast bowler. Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra made the most of the situation to drag New Zealand to 402. Ravichandran Ashwin received a rare hammering. Kuldeep Yadav beat the bat often. But India had the wrong bowling combination, and it showed.
The conditions are worth some reflection. With the first new ball in India’s second innings, New Zealand’s seamers managed 0.67 degrees of seam movement on average in the first 20 overs. With the second, between overs 80 and 100, they managed 0.85 degrees on average. They were more difficult to face with the second new ball than they were with the first. The KSCA is a fast drying ground, and the pitch is technically dry. As long as the rain does not leak through the covers onto the pitch, the pitch is considered dry. But, much of the behaviour of the pitch has to do with the amount of moisture in the surface. A ground which dries due to the effect of gravity and evaporation, without the assistance of the SubAir system, probably also comes with a drier pitch when it is finally ready for play. This accelerated drying method, much like the use of lights and the pink ball, adds to the tests which make up Test cricket. It is a desirable change.
In the fourth innings, India didn’t extract a lot of seam movement. Both Bumrah and Siraj beat the bat often. Bumrah induced 22 false shots from his 48 balls. He got two wickets. It was mostly swing though. Much easier for the batter to miss because it happens a split second earlier in the trajectory.
In the Test match as a whole, India’s bowlers induced 194 false shots in 717 balls, for 12 wickets. New Zealand’s bowlers induced 194 false shots in 787 balls, for 20 wickets. Ravichandran Ashwin had his worst Test match outing in a long time. Tim Southee took the long handle to him with great effect, smashing 25(10). He also induced only 9 false shots in his 16 overs in the first innings.
In the last week, Pakistan have won a Test match without Babar Azam, and New Zealand have won a Test match without Kane Williamson. The next best player available to both teams has filled in more than adequately. Some Test match batters are better than other Test match batters. But the difference between the two does not really move the needle for a Test team compared to equal difference between two fast bowlers will. Batting, in this sense, as I pointed out last week, is irrelevant in Test cricket.
Rachin Ravindra, in style and method, is a left handed Joe Root. He’s similarly tall and lean, has similarly magnificent hands (less eccentric than the irrepressible Sarfaraz Khan’s), and seems to have that extra moment to play the ball compared to the average batter. Like Root, Ravindra is also a thoroughly modern player who uses the reverse sweep to great effect.
All in all, this was a thoroughly modern Test match, made possible by a nearly instantaneously drying KSCA outfield with significant use of floodlights. 20 years ago, this much rain at this ground would not have permitted 250 overs of play. What’s more, 250 overs of play would almost certainly not have produced 1020 runs and 32 wickets. New Zealand have won a fine victory.
India have now lost 5 Test matches in India since they last lost a series in India. In the first Test of home series in the last 10 years, India’s record now reads, 11 wins and 4 defeats in 18 Tests. Overall, their record is 42-5 in 54 Tests (that makes it 31-1 in 36 Tests apart from the first Test of a series). Unless India win both of the next two Tests, they will lose their ongoing streak of consecutive home Test series.