Ishant Sharma doesn't look like your everyday garden variety Indian cricketer.
He's tall, he's lean and sports a long and unkempt hairstyle, the polar opposite to his fast bowling colleague, the meticulously groomed Shantakumaran Sreesanth, a former breakdancer noted for his Michael Jackson impersonations and a liking for mirrors.
But
it was 22-year-old Ishant who helped fire his team to an emphatic victory over New Zealand here shortly after lunch on the fourth afternoon today with an inspired spell of pace bowling.
The tourists were rolled for just 175 in their second innings, a train wreck of an effort which saw them lose by the small matter of an innings and 198 runs at VCA Stadium, the fifth heaviest innings defeat endured by a New Zealand side.
Having mustered only 193 in their first innings, it meant the tourists surrendered meekly to lose the series 0-1, with captain Daniel Vettori quick to identify Ishant as the difference between the teams at Nagpur after he was called up for the deciding test only once left-arm quick Zaheer Khan was ruled out by a groin injury.
"I think the real difference was Ishant," Vettori said while viewing the ruins of a limp New Zealand performance after two high scoring draws at Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
Ishant accelerated New Zealand's tumble with three quick wickets, removing Kane Williamson's off stump with a ball which kept low, ending Tim Southee's belligerent 31 by again hitting the woodwork and then beating the noted defences of tailender Chris Martin first ball as the Cantabrian registered the 29th duck of his test career.
Ishant finished with figures of three for 15 and a match analysis of seven for 58, an outstanding return from a young man with a shiny bright future.
Vettori was as impressed with Ishant as he was unimpressed with his batsmen who came nowhere near replicating the sort of defiance which enabled 37-year-old Rahul Dravid to post 191 in India's only innings of 566 for eight declared.
"To take seven wickets on this wicket really hurt us," Vettori said.
"We knew we were in for a challenge against the spinners but we should have done better against the seamers.
"It was a tough wicket to bowl on for the seamers so for him to come in and bowl so well and do the damage was the real difference between the teams."
After coping so well in the earlier two tests the New Zealand batsmen were taken out of their comfort zone here where the pitch offered more turn and bounce.
They simply did not cope well, with four players trapped leg before wicket by the spinners when playing back and midreading the delivery off the pitch.
New Zealand's cause was not assisted by some questionable officiating by Australian umpire Simon Taufel and his English colleague Nigel Llong.
Taufel adjudged Martin Guptill leg before wicket for a first ball duck to a ball which clearly pitched outside leg while Llong cut short Ross Taylor's stay at 29 when he upheld a bat/pard appeal when the New Zealander did not touch the ball.
Those two decisions did not cost the tourists the game, though, because the blame lay square at the feet of the batting unit as a whole.
"We lost the game with the bat, unfortunately," Vettori said.
"The overall performance was poor compared to what we did in the first two test matches.
"We were exceptional because we grinded it out and made sure we put enough runs on the board.
"In this part of the world first innings runs keep you in the game."
That certainly did not happen here, which led to a certain inevitability about the result.
That it came so quickly, with New Zealand lasting just 51.2 overs today, enabled India to wrap the game up in less than 3-1/2 days.
The tourists will remain in Nagpur for the next two days before heading to Guwahati for the opening game of the five-match one-day series on Sunday.
SCOREBOARD
New Zealand
First innings 193
India
First innings 566-8 dec
New Zealand
Second innings (overnight 24-1)
T McIntosh lbw b McIntosh 8
B McCullum lbw b Ojha 25
G Hopkins c Gambhir b Singh 8
M Guptill lbw b Ojha 0
R Taylor c sub (Pujara) b Singh 29
J Ryder c Sharma b Raina 22
K Williamson b Sharma 8
D Vettori lbw b Raina 13
T Southee b Sharma 31
A McKay not out 20
C Martin b Sharma 0
Extras (10b, 1lb) 11
Total (51.2 overs) 175
Fall: 18 (McIntosh), 38 (McCullum), 38 (Guptill), 62 (Hopkins), 93 (Taylor), 110 (Williamson), 123 (Ryder), 124 (Vettori), 175 (Southee), 175 (Martin).
Bowling: S Sreesanth 7-3-25-0, I Sharma 6.2-2-15-3, P Ojha 17-2-67-2, H Singh 19-4-56-3, S Raina 2-1-1-2.
Result: India won by an innings and 198 runs. India won the three-match series 1-0.
- NZPA
Ishant Sharma doesn't look like your everyday garden variety Indian cricketer.
He's tall, he's lean and sports a long and unkempt hairstyle, the polar opposite to his fast bowling colleague, the meticulously groomed Shantakumaran Sreesanth, a former breakdancer noted for his Michael Jackson impersonations and a liking for mirrors.
But
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