First cricket test between India and New Zealand ended in a pulsating draw as the visitors could save the match at 165 for 9 wicket by the skin of their teeth. Indians could not get all the wickets in the given 98 overs that were available on Monday. It was bad luck for India for not being able to take the lone wicket although five overs were left after the ninth wicket was taken. New Zealand, the champions in the five-day format of cricket, have proved their class and avoided defeat.
Indias spinners Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel struck at regular intervals in the second innings of New Zealand after a good start by the visitors Tom Letham and William Somerville who added 76 runs for the second wicket. Jadeja and Ravichandran picked four and three wickets respectively while Axar Patel and Umesh Yadav scalped one each. Ashwin brought India into the game when he bowled Letham out. With this wicket, Ashwin had surpassed Harbhajan Singh’s record to become India’s third -highest wicket taker with a haul of 418 wickets.
India have made 345 in the first innings while New Zeland came up to 296 in their first innings. India declared their second innings on Sunday evening at 234/7 giving a few overs to New Zealand in which the visitors lost one wicket. It was described as a perfect test match by former cricketers like Veerendra Sehwag who congrtulated the visitors. “Test cricket is the best cricket. Epic effort by New Zealand to save the test match. Well-tried India. Mumbai should be a cracket,” Sehwag tweeted. “How good is the test cricket! 5 days, tough cricket played by both teams and it ended in a draw. That’s why we love it. Can’t wait for the 2nd test in Mumbai,” commented Australian cricketer David Warner.
