The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team is currently playing a 3-match Test series against New Zealand. The team's first match was played in Bengaluru from October 16, the result of which was declared on the fifth day i.e. today. Team India lost this match by 8 wickets. With this win, the Kiwi team has taken a 1-0 lead in the series.
This is New Zealand's first Test win on Indian soil in 36 years and third overall. The Kiwi team previously won a Test match on Indian soil in 1988. In this Bengaluru Test, the Indian team made 5 big mistakes, due to which they lost the match. Let's know about it…
It took a while to understand the pitch The first mistake in the match was made at the time of toss. This mistake was made by captain Rohit Sharma, for which the team had to bear the punishment. After the end of the second day's play, the captain even apologized to the fans for the mistake. Rohit Sharma said that he made a big mistake in understanding the pitch. He could not understand the pitch properly.
This is why he decided to bat first after winning the toss, which turned out to be completely wrong. The Indian team was all out for 46 runs in the first innings. For the first time in the 92-year Test history, the team was all out for the lowest score at home.
Rohit said, 'We felt there was not much grass on the pitch. We thought that whatever is going to happen here will happen in the first session of the match. After this, as the game progresses, it (the pitch) will change its direction. Whenever we play in India the first session is always important. After this the wicket (pitch) freezes and the spinners start getting help here.
He further said, 'Like I said, there wasn't much grass here (the pitch), so we thought Kuldeep (spinner Kuldeep Yadav) should be included in the match. This is also because Kuldeep is bowling on a flat pitch and taking wickets as well.
The bet to play Kuldeep proved wrong After winning the toss, Indian captain Rohit made another big mistake. Due to a wrong pitch reading, he included the third i.e. extra spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the playing-11. When only two spinners were enough on this pitch. Three fast bowlers were supposed to be fielded on this pitch, but he took only two fast bowlers.
Kuldeep took 3 wickets in the first innings. While he did not get any success in the second innings. On the other hand, only the fast bowlers for New Zealand took a total of 17 wickets in two innings. Thus it can be understood that the Indian team lost a fast bowler in the match.
Made a mistake while batting After two mistakes by captain Rohit, the Indian batsmen needed to stand firm at the crease and face a difficult situation. He had to bat a bit better here to take the Indian team to a respectable score. But this did not happen. One by one the Indian batters kept coming and going. The entire team was bowled out for 46 runs in the first innings.
Five players could not even open their account, including Virat Kohli, Sarfaraz Khan, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. If these batsmen had scored 10-10 runs, the Indian team could have crossed the mark of 100. Apart from this, no other batsman could score 5 runs except Rishabh Pant (20) and Yashshwi Jaiswal (13). All were out of it. This is the reason why the lowest score of 46 runs was made in the first innings, which sank the Indian team.
There was no magic in the bowling either After 3 errors in the opening, the fans were hoping that the way the New Zealand bowlers showed their strength, the Indian bowlers would also show the same strength. With this, the Kiwi team will be limited to a low score. But here too the bowlers disappointed the fans. No bowler was able to stop the Kiwi team and the New Zealand team sealed the match by scoring 402 runs in the first innings.
Bad fielding took away chances Even in fielding between the batsmen and the bowlers, the Indian players left no stone unturned to sink the boat. In the first innings, KL Rahul dropped such an easy catch that even the fans were shocked to see him. This catch came in the slip. KL Rahul didn't even try, let alone take the catch. In fact, Rahul even moved away to protect himself from the ball. In both the first and second innings, the Indian fielders also gave away some extra runs in the bye. A lot of pressure could have been created if this catch had been taken and the runs saved.
The Indian team scored 46 runs in the first innings of the match. After this the Kiwi team made a big score of 402 runs. The Indian team batted well in the second innings and scored 462 runs. Because of this, the Indian team gave New Zealand a target of 107 runs. In reply, the Kiwi team won the match by losing only 2 wickets.
The formidable Racine-Saudi partnership irked the Indians Apart from Conway, Rachin Ravindra at number four (134 runs off 157 balls) gave trouble to the Indian team. Racine added 39 runs for the fourth wicket with Daryl Mitchell (18). After this, Rachin did not get good support from the other side for some time. However, a dangerous partnership ensued when Tim Southee (65 runs) came in to support Racine. Both shared 137 runs for the eighth wicket. Due to the partnership of both, New Zealand scored 402 runs in the first innings. Had India been able to break this partnership early, New Zealand would have been all out in under 300. Rachin was the last player to get out. He hit 13 fours and 4 sixes in his innings.
Rahul, Jadeja, Ashwin did not walk in the second innings Sarfaraz Khan (150), Rishabh Pant (99) and Virat Kohli (70) batted brilliantly as India scored 462 runs in the second innings. However, KL Rahul (12), all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (5) and R Ashwin (15) were dismissed in the lower order. If all three had contributed with the bat, India could have scored big. India lost the last 7 wickets in the second innings for just 54 runs. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj returned to zero.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
