The India vs New Zealand 2nd Test match is being played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune from Thursday, October 24. In this match, New Zealand team captain Tom Latham won the toss and chose to bat first. Washington Sundar (7/59) bowled brilliantly as India dismissed New Zealand’s first innings for 259 runs on the opening day of the second Test of the three-match series. Ravichandran Ashwin also took three wickets for India. For New Zealand, Devon Conway contributed 76, Rachin Ravindra 65 and Mitchell Santner contributed 33 runs.
But there’s something to worry about. As we know, history can repeat. This is not the first time India dominated a second test match after losing the first match of a test series. The current scenario of the India vs. New Zealand series remains about a match played between India and Australia in 2017. Where Indian bowlers did their job well in the first inning, but batting was a complete failure. Thus, India suffered a defeat despite having an advantage in the first innings over Australia.
In that match, Australia batted first after winning the toss and scored 259 runs losing 9 wickets on the first day. The Australian innings was eventually piled on just 260 runs, just 1 run more than New Zealand’s score. After this, Team India piled on just 105 runs in the first innings. Incidentally, in that innings too, Team India captain Virat Kohli failed to open the account like Rohit Sharma out for a zero yesterday at Pune.
The MCA Stadium at Gahunje in Pune, the venue for the second Test between #INDvNZ
India’s contrasting totals in the previous two Tests at this ground..
– 105/10 & 107/10 vs Australia in 2017 (lost by 333 runs)
– 601/5d vs South Africa in 2019 (won by inns & 137 runs)#INDvsNZ pic.twitter.com/D7mqkrvpNx— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 24, 2024
Australia won that match by a big margin of 333 runs. In this victory of Australia, left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe emerged as the biggest hero for Australia. He took 6 wickets in both innings. Now if we talk about India vs New Zealand second test match, then this team also has 2 left-arm spinners in Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel. Both of them troubled Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal at the end of the first day.