It took five matches, but a New Zealand batsman finally recorded a hundred on this tour. Kane Williamson
came to the crease in the first over and did not budge until the 43rd.
By that time he had 118 runs off 128 balls. The timing of his wicket
gave India an opening and they were able to restrict the total to 242
for 9 at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Besides the fact that New Zealand have been unable to win a single match
on tour - they have struggled to win tosses too - plenty of challenges
came Williamson's way. Not least of which was his own body refusing to
cooperate. He began cramping up in the Delhi heat - and it became
contagious. His left forearm caught it first, then his right, and at one
point he couldn't even lift a bottle to drink. But when play resumed,
he smacked Hardik Pandya over his head to the long-on boundary.
In the past, when faced with such determination, India's bowlers have
been guilty of switching off. But there were two passages of play - the
middle overs and then the final ten - that they simply dominated.
And it was the result of a simple plan - go after Williamson's partners. Ross Taylor
was worked over so completely that it seemed like the ball had a
restraining order against the middle of his bat. When it was short and
wide, he'd get an inside edge. When it was down leg, he'd miss the
flick. He was trying to hit the ball so hard that on one occasion his
helmet nearly wobbled off. New Zealand had been chugging along before
his entry at the Feroz Shah Kotla - 70 runs between the 11th and 21st
over. They could only get 38 runs in the next ten overs, at the
culmination of which Taylor fell for 21 off 42 balls.
There was only one over that cost more than six in the final ten. Worse,
there was only one boundary - off a tailender's outside edge - in that
period: the result of India beginning this spell of play by dismissing
Williamson, and power-hitters Corey Anderson and Luke Ronchi in the
space of 17 balls.
New Zealand were 158 for 2 in the 31st over. The only impediment to a
batsman was that the pitch was slightly slow, but if he could get the
ball through the infield, the outfield was quick enough to reward the
effort with boundaries. It was an ungainly collapse.
India's engineering of it was rather clever. MS Dhoni recognised
Taylor's poor form - 89 runs in seven innings on this tour - and used
bowlers he trusted to keep things tight. Jasprit Bumrah went for the
toes or the ears. Axar Patel's accuracy - and high pace for a left-arm
spinner - made rotating strike difficult. Pandya probed in the off-stump
corridor. Having heaped the pressure on, India then brought legspinner
Amit Mishra on to bowl wide of off stump to tempt Taylor into his
preferred slog sweep. He was caught at deep midwicket.
Anderson could only get two fours away before he was pinned lbw by
Mishra for 21 off 32. Ronchi was caught behind after being cajoled into
playing a cut, as Dhoni had a sweeper out and asked Patel to keep
bowling wide of the stumps.
Then came Bumrah's slower balls and yorkers - a cocktail too heady for
the tailenders. Matt Henry and Southee lost their off stumps for a duck
and 6 respectively.
But the best ball of the innings came early from Umesh Yadav, a peach of
an outswinger in the very first over that blitzed through Martin
Guptill's defence before he had scored.
This is not to say New Zealand batting was entirely boorish. Tom Latham
was adept at driving the ball anywhere between point and mid-off. His
run-a-ball 46 was testament to how well he knows his game. Timing is his
strength and he concentrated on that, opening the face of the bat to
find gaps on the off side. Having quickly read there wasn't much spin in
the pitch, he took Mishra on, slog-sweeping the second ball he faced
from the bowler for a six.
Williamson was even more calculative. He picked 65 of his runs in the
arc between square leg and mid-on, which in the early part of the
innings, was usually only manned by one or two men. His first boundary
came through midwicket which was left vacant, punishment for Yadav
straying too straight with a 7-2 offside field.
His first, and only, six of the innings exemplified how well he knew the
field. Mid-on had been up. He danced down and lofted Patel over his
head in the 13th over. When Patel was taken off and Mishra was brought
on, Williamson cut and flicked the bowler for boundaries to make sure
India's spinners couldn't threaten him or his team-mates. New Zealand
did everything right to build a skyscraper, but clocked out too early.
courtesy: espncricinfo
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