By VoN Sports Team
New Zealand managed to hold India down to a thrilling draw in the first Test of the two-Test series at the Green Park Stadium, Kanpur on November 25. It should have been an honourable draw for both teams, but with points being accrued for the World Test Championship, India was on the backfoot in the end. New Zealand earned four points for the draw, as did India, but having been forced to draw as hosts, India also lost 8 points.
The Indian team played without its regular captain, Virat Kohli, who has been rested. He will join the team as skipper in the second Test in Mumbai, starting December 3. For the first Test Ajinkya Rahane was captain. Suryakumar Yadav replaced KL Rahul in the squad. Rahul has sustained a muscle strain on his left thigh and has been ruled out of the Test series. This was also Shreyas Iyer’s debut Test.
India won the toss and elected to bat, hitting up 345, Shreyas hitting a century on Test debut. He became the 16th Indian to score a century on Test debut. His 105 came off 177 deliveries. Rahane scored 35 and Ravindra Jadeja scored 50. New Zealand’s Tim Southee took five wickets for 69 runs, Kyle Jamieson 3 for 91.
Coming in to bat New Zealand scored 296 in their first innings, opener Tom Latham scoring 95. Will Young added 89. India’s Axar Patel took five wickets for 62runs, and Ravichandran Ashwin took 3 for 82.
India declared its second Innings at 234 for 7 wickets, Shreyas Iyer scoring 65. Wriddhiman Saha scored 61. Tim Southee took 3 wickets for 75 runs, Kyle Jamieson also took 3 wickets for 40.
In their second innings New Zealand scored 165 for 9 before India ran out of time. Jadeja and Ashwin took 4 and 3 wickets, respectively. Ashwin (418 wickets) displaced Harbhajan Singh (417) as the third highest Indian wicket-taker in Tests, behind Anil Kumble (619) and Kapil Dev (434).
Shreyas Iyer was Player of the Match.
