Mitchell Santner celebrates his seven-wicket haul. Photo / Photosport
Mitchell Santner celebrates his seven-wicket haul. Photo / Photosport
An irrepressible Black Caps bowling attack ripped through India in their own conditions before the touring batters made light work of building a significant lead.
No, this isn’t a recap of the second day in last week’s first test. You’re not dreaming, New Zealand. It really did happenagain.
Led by a masterful spell from Mitchell Santner and supported by a captain’s knock from Tom Latham, the Black Caps dominated from the first over to stumps on day two of the second test in Pune.
After Santner snared career-best figures of 7-53 to dismiss the hosts for 156, Latham struck 86 to give his side a 301-run lead with five second-innings wickets in hand.
And after toiling for 36 years without adding to their two test wins in India, New Zealand moved tantalisingly close to two stunning triumphs – and maiden series victory – in the space of a week.
In Bengaluru, an eight-wicket win was created on day two, rolling India for 46 before reaching 180-3 by stumps. In Pune, once the tourists had been dismissed for 259 on day one, the sequel was slightly less explosive but perhaps even less expected.
After all, that record blitz to begin the first test owed much to a perfect storm of seam-friendly weather conditions, washing out the opening day and playing into the hands of a side always paced by their pacers.
In response, the hosts were always going to prepare a treacherous second-test pitch, where Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja would undoubtedly twist the opposing batters’ blood, before Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant would feast in familiar climes.
But to put a twist on an old saying, everyone has a plan until Mitchell Santner punches them in the face.
The veteran allrounder is hardly the aggressive sort. Santner barely celebrated bowling out Kohli for one. Yet his turn and flight and attacking lines left a stupefied series of batters trudging off like their bell had been rung.
Santner bowled the first over of the day and the last over of the innings, a destructive stretch interrupted only by lunch. The 32-year-old’s best first-class haul was contained inside an inconceivable 12.3-over stretch in which he claimed his seven wickets for 38 runs.
It was comparable to the 10-over spell that brought seven wickets for Washington Sundar the day before, and similarly unlikely given the duo’s respective track records in the longest form.
Santner’s place in the test team has recently come under increasing scrutiny. The emergence of Glenn Phillips – who took 2-26 on day two – has rendered the white-ball ace almost redundant at home, while he collected one wicket last month’s two test defeats in Sri Lanka.
Some might have preferred Ish Sodhi in the XI for this match. Instead, Santner recorded the second-best test figures by a New Zealander in India, equal for eighth-best in any nation.
Mitchell Santner celebrates the wicket of Ravichandran Ashwin. Photo / Photosport
With India resuming on 16-1, Santner was unfortunate to be denied the wicket of Shubman Gill from his third ball. That was about the last bit of misfortune suffered by the left-armer.
Santner consistently attacked the stumps, removing six batters either bowled or lbw, while enjoying plenty of assistance from the pitch and some from the Indian batters.
Kohli, much to the crowd’s disbelief, opted for a cross-bat slog and missed a low full toss. Sarfaraz Khan, who last week blew away the Black Caps with 150, attempted to smack the spinner over mid-off but only gifted a catch.
Yet the miscues spoke to the pressure Santner established between wicket-taking deliveries, making the home side appear lost at the crease when one deviated naturally off the surface.
Latham, in contrast, found just the knock he and New Zealand needed, ending a run of five cheap dismissals amid which he assumed the captaincy. Facing a new-ball attack of Ashwin and Washington, the opener swept his way out of trouble and into the runs, equally content in tickling fine and cracking square.
With help from rest of the top order, Latham’s control of the spinners was such he eventually forced Ashwin and Jadeja out of the attack, rewarded with the seam of Jasprit Bumrah. The innings merited a hundred and would have reaped that prize were it not for an umpire’s-call lbw by Washington, the test novice adding another four scalps to his first-innings seven.
But Latham and the Black Caps must feel they have nearly enough. India have just once chased more than 300 to a win a test at home, against England at Chennai in 2008.
If the tourists continue playing like this, only one result remains in question: a series sweep in Mumbai. Dream big, New Zealand.
