India- 1st Innings:

Happy that there was no rain to affect the match except the last 30 mins. We had a lot of cricket yesterday in the day-3 of World Test Championship Final- India Vs New Zealand. The day was planned for 98 overs. This blog is to summarize the day of cricket clash. India started the innings at 146-3 with Kohli(44*) and Rahane(29*) at the crease. As a shock to all the fans, Virat Kohli departed at his overnight score without scoring any runs in day-3. Kyle Jamieson bowled a perfect fuller-length delivery to dismiss Kohli in a lbw. Then came Rishabh Pant. The 23-year old was expected to play a vital innings for the team and take the score big. But to all our disappointment, Pant was dismissed at 4 runs by Kyle Jamieson. Rahane remained at the crease with no one to support him. Then Jadeja join him and they made a quite good partnership of 26 runs. These 2 were expected to take the game long. But Niel Wagner dismissed Rahane when he was at 49 runs. The vice captain went off the field without scoring a half century. Then, as everyone know, came Ravi Ashwin. But the surprise point is he didn’t come to play a supporting role to Jadeja. He started hitting boundaries, giving India a hope of scoring 270+ runs. But he was dismissed at 22 runs by Tim Southee. He scored 3 boundaries in his quick innings of 27 balls. Then the tail-enders started to come one after other. Nothing gone in favour of India in the 1st innings of batting. India was all-out at 217. Rahane was the highest scorer(49 runs). Then it was the Indian bowlers’ duty to restrict the New Zealanders for a low total as much as possible.

NZ – 1st Innings:

Tom Latham and Devon Conway opened the innings for New Zealand. The pair played a patient cricket without taking any risks. The run rate was just 1+ for the first 20 overs. Credits must be given to Indian bowlers to bowl with control. Bowlers never lost their patience. NZ batsmen struggled against the fast bowlers but luck was at their side. The pair made a long opening partnership of 34 overs. When the energy of the crowd was down, Indian players were fighting with patience. Ashwin took the wicket of Tom Latham at 35th over. The left hander was dismissed scoring 30 runs off 114 balls. Then the captain Kane Williamson joined hands with Decoy Conway. The pair looked comfortable. Kane batted comfortably keeping his partner without pressure. The pair batted for next 14 overs and made a 31 runs partnership. Ishant Sharma took the wicket of Devon Conway before the end of the day. He was dismissed scoring 54 runs off 153 balls. Then Ross Taylor came to the crease. He played 3 balls and then the play was stopped at 11 PM IST due to bad light and was announced that the play will resume on day-4. New Zealand scored 101-2 at the end of the day.

The run-rate of this final match(2.27 rpo) is the slowest in any test played in England this century.