New Zealand continued their impressive form with a crushing 232 run defeat of India inside 4 days at the Motera Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad.
As before, this was a triumph of teamwork rather than individual brilliance. Stephen Fleming won the toss and chose to bat on a poorly prepared strip, described as well below Test standard. Nevertheless the visitors made 269 in their 1st innings (Jasprit Bumrah the pick of the bowlers taking 5-55).
The 2nd day was 1 of attritional cricket, with just 45 runs in 31 overs between lunch & tea. It was only lusty hitting from Jadeja and Kapil Dev on day 3 that edged India's total to 226 (43 behind).
New Zealand's batsmen seemed to cope with challenging batting conditions much better than their Indian counterparts. Their openers, Sutcliffe and Turner, compiled century partnerships in both innings, while it was certainly an advantage to have tremendous hitters like McCullum and Hadlee in their lower order.
India were set 323 to win in 4 sessions but Virender Sehwag was carelessly stumped before tea on day 4. Thereafter the Indian batting imploded as they lost 9 wickets for 81 runs. India's last pair, Kapil Dev and Chandrasekhar, put on 30! Bert Sutcliffe's underrated slow left arm bowling took 5-47 as the home side collapsed to 90 all out inside 40 overs. A disappointing anti climax to what promised to be an intriguing Test match finish.
New Zealand head home to face the West Indies at Dunedin in their final match. They are now 2nd in the table and know that a win will see them into the final. India are off to Karachi to face Pakistan. There is a slight chance that they could deny Pakistan a place in the final if they won, and they will give everything to help make that a reality.
New Zealand 1st Innings 269-10 (115.2 Ov)
GM Turner 78, SP Fleming 48, B Sutcliffe 44, JJ Bumrah 5-55, SR Tendulkar 2-19,
RA Jadeja 2-43
India 1st Innings 226-10 (97.5 Ov)
R Dravid 60, RA Jadeja 43, V Kohli 39, DL Vettori 4-38, SE Bond 3-33
New Zealand 2nd Innings 279-7 (101.4 Ov)
GM Turner 90, B Sutcliffe 58, BB McCullum 56*, BS Chandrasekhar 3-31, RA Jadeja 2-31
India 2nd Innings 90-10 (39.5 Ov)
B Sutcliffe 5-47, TG Southee 3-17
New Zealand win by 232 runs
Man of the Match: B Sutcliffe
Another fantastic performance from Sutcliffe, scoring 102 runs in the game with a match winning bowling performance in the 2nd innings, taking 5 for 47.
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