Pune. Thanks to the lethal bowling of left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner (6 wickets for 106 runs), New Zealand defeated India by 113 runs on the third day of the second Test on Saturday to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. With this, India achieved its first series win on Indian soil. India had got the target of 359 runs but the Indian team was reduced to 245 runs in 60.2 overs. The Indian team has lost the Test series at home after 12 years. Despite a good start on the third day of the Pune Test, the Indian batting could not respond to the spin of Mitchell Santner and the host team had to face defeat by 113 runs. This is New Zealand’s first Test series win on Indian soil. With this victory, New Zealand has taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. On the third day, India had a target of 359 runs after the pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin bowled out New Zealand cheaply. The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal started the batting with an aggressive approach and initially it seemed that the Indian batsmen had learned from their mistakes in the first innings. Both Rohit and Jaiswal used pace and also played sweep shots to counter the spin, although Rohit was out soon but by the end of the first session, India had reached 81 runs for the loss of one wicket. Jaiswal was close to his half-century and along with Shubman Gill took India’s run rate to more than six runs per over. India needed only one good session to be in the driving seat of the match but the second session went dramatically in New Zealand’s favor with Santner being the architect of it.
After Gill returned to the pavilion, Jaiswal also could not last long. Both the batsmen were caught in the slips while trying to defend. Now the responsibility of taking the match forward from here was on Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant. However, Pant became a victim of haste and was run out. This wicket was enough to put psychological pressure on India. Santner, who had taken three wickets, paved the way for Pant to the pavilion by throwing a good throw from the backward point at the striker’s end. After this, India’s run rate also started slowing down and spin also started acting a lot. Kohli also could not last long and was LBW while playing the next ball back. He took the review but due to the umpire’s call he had to return to the pavilion. However, DRS was not very kind to the Kiwi team today and DRS taken against Jaiswal on LBW appeal twice was unsuccessful. Sarfaraz Khan, who had scored a century in the last Test, this time got caught in Santner’s loop and missed the defense and was bowled. From here, India was in danger of losing the series at home after 12 years, which was saved by the pair of Ashwin and Jadeja for some time. Both added 39 runs in 75 balls and as soon as Ashwin was out, defeat did not look far away. Santner took some 13 wickets in the entire match, including seven wickets in the first innings and six wickets in the second innings.