India who were fighting to get that one wicket, could not manage to get the same and with bad light added to the situation saw the Men in Blue and New Zealand settle for a draw in the first Test at Green Park in Kanpur.
While Jadeja had four wickets to his name, Ashwin had scalped three wickets. The other bowlers – Axar Patel and Umesh Yadav – have taken one wicket each. As far as the Kiwis are concerned, Rachin Ravindra has done a brilliant job holding the fort for his side on debut as he did not let India win the first Test.
Earlier at the tea break, New Zealand’s score read 125/4 with the visitors still needing 159 runs for the win. Will Somerville (36) was sent back to the pavilion by Umesh Yadav in the 36th over of the innings and this brought skipper Kane Williamson to the middle. Latham however marched on and he brought up his half-century in the 51st over of the innings.
Latham (52) was bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin in the 55th over and as a result, the off-spinner went past Harbhajan Singh`s tally of 417 Test wickets. Ross Taylor (2) also failed to score big, and New Zealand was quickly reduced to 125/4.
Day 4 saw India start off on a horrendous note but ended very strongly as they needed nine wickets to win the first Test. There was some poor batting from the Indian batters in the second innings and also some outstanding bowling by New Zealand, led by Tim Southee.
Cheteshwar Pujara, Rahane, Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal all failed to put many scores on the board. However, India’s first innings hero Shreyas Iyer combined with the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha got India out of a troublesome situation.
More to follow…
