New Zealand's Jamieson strikes again as India captain Kohli and Pant fall in World Test final
- 20 Jun 2021
Kyle Jamieson captured the prize wickets of India captain Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant in quick succession to give New Zealand the edge in the disrupted World Test Championship final at Southampton on Sunday.
India were 211-7 in their first innings at lunch on the third day, with the towering Jamieson — in only his eighth Test — boasting the miserly figures of 3-26 in 20 overs including 12 maidens.
To make matters worse for India, the well-set Ajinkya Rahane then holed out for 49 in a session when his side lost four wickets for 65 runs having resumed on 146-3.
But Ravindra Jadeja (15 not out) and Ravichandran Ashwin (23) counter-attacked with some well-struck boundaries either side of the arrival of the new ball.
WEATHER INTERRUPTIONS
After a wet outfield delayed Sunday's start by 30 minutes, India resumed with Kohli 44 not out and Rahane unbeaten on 29 in a match where weather interruptions meant only 64.4 overs out of a scheduled 180 had been bowled on the first two days.
Conditions were tough for batting, with the gloomy skies, which saw the ground's floodlights switched on and a green-tinged pitch all in favour of a New Zealand pace attack looking to generate swing movement through the air and seam the ball off the surface.
Kohli, 10 years to the day since his Test debut against the West Indies in Kingston, fell to the eighth ball he faced on Sunday when the towering Jamieson got a full-length delivery to nip back and strike the star batsman on the front pad.
The India skipper reviewed Michael Gough's decision but the English umpire's 'out' verdict was upheld to end a stand of 61, with ball-tracking technology indicating the delivery would have hit the top of leg stump.
ACCURACY
Such was New Zealand's accuracy, Kohli's's 132-ball innings included just one boundary — a cover-driven four off left-armer Neil Wagner to get off the mark.
Pant was still on nought when a tight umpire's call verdict spared him an lbw to Jamieson, bowling round the wicket to the left-hander. The usually free-scoring Pant needed 20 balls to get off the mark, with a four through midwicket off Jamieson.
Two balls later,Jamieson dismissed the wicketkeeper when Pant, unable to resist a full-length delivery that was moving away, drove loosely outside off stump and was well caught at second slip by Tom Latham.
Rahane had batted in composed fashion during an admirable 117-ball innings with five fours. But, one run shy of a fifty, he was cramped trying to pull a Wagner short ball and lobbed a simple catch to Latham, now at mid-wicket.
Ashwin's enterprising innings ended when he was caught in the cordon by Latham off Tim Southee before, in a rare New Zealand lapse, third slip Southee dropped Jadeja, on 11, off new-ball partner Trent Boult.
Friday's first day was washed out completely, but match referee Chris Broad does have a special dispensation to extend this final into a sixth day if he rules extra time is required to compensate for overs lost in the game.
This match, the culmination of the inaugural World Test Championship that has spanned two years of series between the leading Test nations, is worth $1.6 million to the winners and $800,000 to the runners-up.
Agence France-Presse
