The battered crowd were content cheering India staving off dubious records, like when they crossed 37 and then 42, or when the last-wicket pair of Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav resisted for five overs. (PTI)
When the sun finally broke through the clouds after days in hiding and shone brightly, the lights were already out of India’s dressing room. Under glowering forenoon skies of Bangalore, the moving and leaping wreck-ball, surgically directed by New Zealand’s pace trio, reduced them to a pile of unflattering records. The 46 they mustered on Day Two in Bangalore was their lowest in the country, the third worst overall and the least a team had ever managed in the continent.
For 31.2 overs and 132 minutes, a nightmare within a nightmare unfolded here. Much of it was self-inflicted. India chose to bat knowing fully that the ball would zip and zap; they were aware that this was New Zealand’s strongest suit, (and their own kryptonite). Yet, in the heady over-estimation of their batting prowess or undermining of the conditions, they decide to bat. Perhaps, to challenge their mind and technique against the moving ball released from a trio of bowlers born and raised in similar conditions, who are capable of squeezing every ounce of favourable conditions. Or to show the world that they could conquer arduous climes, or that they are fully equipped to deal with the might of Australia in a month’s time, or as preparation for that tour.
Whatever be, this was a day India wished had not existed. Tactics mockingly backfired, be it the decision to bat first under cloud cover and accumulated moisture, or the ploy to install Virat Kohli at one drop, or Sarfraz Khan at four, or sacrificing an in-form seamer for a third spinner. But none would pain them as much as their shocking batting—a total surrender of mind and technique.
Innings Break!#TeamIndia all out for 46.
Over to our bowlers now! 👍 👍
Match Updates ▶️ https://t.co/8qhNBrrtDF#INDvNZ | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/GhqcZy2rby
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 17, 2024
The conditions, undoubtedly, were harrowing and the three seamers furnished diverse challenges. Tim Southee swung the ball away and wobble-seamed it inwardly to the right-handers; Matt Henry combined slippery pace with seam movement either ways; the six feet four inches William O’Rourke released from heavens, shuffled his lengths adroitly and produced disconcerting bounce off hard and good lengths. Rather than getting carried away by the conditions, they stuck to their fundamentals, probed tight lines, pounded difficult lengths and barely gifted a release ball. The siege they laid could not be breached.
As relentless and conditions-primed New Zealand’s bowlers were, various aspects of India’s batting were exposed in varying degrees. India’s batsmen failed the technique test. Angled and crooked bats, pokes and prods met the moving ball, some that challenged the principles of geometry. A sturdy defensive shot was rarer than the falcons that usually hover over the arena.
Barring Yashasvi Jaiswal, none showed a concerted application. He was India’s best batsman of the day, even though he was prone to the odd short of indiscretion. But he stood out the crease, sometimes charged forward to block and left admirably. Southee and Henry beat him multiple times, he showed the resoluteness to fight back. However, just when he seemed bedded-in, he cut airily to point, triggering a collapse towards the end of the morning session.
His partner Rohit Sharma summoned his white-ball approach to bail out of travails. He survived a Henry dream ball, which swung in, shaped away and hit his back pad, saved narrowly by the umpire’s judgement that the ball had hit him high. His response to the lbw near-save was buffeting down the track to Southee, whose wobble-seamer cut back lavishly to fox him and blast the stumps. Whatever happened to the Rohit of the 2021 vintage in England, when he batted like an old-fashioned graft and grind opener.
Later, Sarfraz Khan too perished attempting an expansive stroke—which on the day sounded like a euphemism for poor defensive technique. Half defensive pushes—feet tied on the crease and hands pushing at the ball—-were a recurring feature of India’s latest tryst with batting ignominy. The perfect case studies were Rishabh Pant and Ravichandran Ashwin, both departing when defending from inside the line.
The batsmen’s lack of trust in their defensive technique was ironic in the land that had produced the finest technician of the modern era, Rahul Dravid, whose exploits are pasted all around the stadium. Elegiacally, his inheritance has been misplaced in the team. To gloss over the vulnerability, they tried to counterattack. Eight balls into his torturous stay, Pant attempted reverse-sweeping Henry. He succeeded in just edging onto his own forearm, when the score was merely 13 for 3.
Before the technique had caved in, their mind had wilted. India failed to read through New Zealand’s plans. There was a leg gully for Virat Kohli but he couldn’t prepare his reflexes to keep the jumping ball down. The inward moving ball smacked his glove to the plunging claws of Glenn Phillips, one of the finest fielders around. O’Rourke’s leg-side defeated KL Rahul too, even though it was not as fiendish as the Kohli one. It was a tame indecisive poke. Similarly Jadeja swiped across the line off Henry, to end the first session at 34 for 6. Soon, they were 34 for 7, invoking fears of Adelaide.
The battered crowd were content cheering India staving off dubious records, like when they crossed 37 and then 42, or when the last-wicket pair of Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav resisted for five overs. Then the sun burst through the clouds, though the lights were already out of the Indian dressing room.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 17-10-2024 at 17:45 IST
