Very happy!! We got to see some cricket yesterday after a very long wait since IPL. It’s India Vs New Zealand, the second day of the World Test Championship Final at Southampton, England. The day 1 was already vanished out completely due to rain. Thanks to ICC to plan a reserve day on June 23. Cricket missed in the five preplanned days will be played on the reserve day.
Toss:
It was bright and shiny in the morning yesterday. Though there was cloud. Captains went for toss. New Zealand won the toss and they decided to bowl first. The decision from New Zealand skipper may be because of the conditions. It was cloudy and the conditions are overcast. So it would assist the swing of the ball.
Teams:
India – Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishab Pant(wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin,Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah.
New Zealand – Devon Conway, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson(c), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling(wk), Kyle Jamieson, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Niel Wagner.
Toss insights:
New Zealand opted to have 5 fast bowling options. They don’t even pick a spinner in their eleven. This might be because of the conditions that they might have picked a team that is best suited to play in this English conditions. Also they are having Colin to bat at no.8 now. He gave stability to the team in terms of batting. There might be also a reason that they might have thought Indians are very good players of spin. They have shown their class against Nathon Lynn in Australia and against Dom Bess and Jack Leach in India. Whatever may be the reason, New Zealand surprised us by this move.
India- 1st innings:
Rohit and Gill really gave a very good start. Gill looked uncomfortable at the beginning but he soon adapted to the situation better. Rohit was good and runs flown at regular intervals from his bat right from the start. They made a good partnership but not so long. Both got out when team’s score was around 62 with Gill scoring 28 and Rohit scoring 34. Jamieson and Wagner bagged their wickets. Then came Pujara,the man. We were fortunate to see him bat as he always does. He played 35 dot balls before scoring his first run. He scored two boundaries in his very short innings and got dismissed by Boult when he was on 8(54). Momentum slightly turned towards New Zealand side. But Kohli and the later joined Rahane didn’t let that go away. They played a 50 run partnership in this tough swinging conditions going on and off the field. Yes, the play was constantly interrupted by the weather conditions. It was not rain this time. It’s bad light. Play was stopped for the third time when Rahane was at 29 runs and Kohli at 44 runs. Then no play resumed. Just 64.4 overs bowled last night. We lost nearly a session of play. Hope there is no such interruptions in the day-3 game. Stay home!! Stay safe!!
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