Riding on Ajaz Patel's 6-57 in the fourth innings, New Zealand edged out India by 25 runs on the third day of the final Test in Mumbai to complete a historic 3-0 whitewash. It is the first time that India have been whitewashed at home in a series spanning three or more games.
NEW ZEALAND TOUR OF INDIA, 2024
Ajaz stars again at Wankhede as New Zealand seal historic whitewash
New Zealand became the first side to whitewash India in India in a Test series spanning three or more games. © BCCI
Starting the second session with 55 more to win and four wickets in left, India's chances rested solely on Rishabh Pant (64) whose adventurous knock kept the hosts in the chase. However, Ajaz soon put a stop to India's hopes as he had the left-hander caught behind in what was a hugely controversial decision.
Pant was initially given not out by on-field umpire Richard Illingworth but on DRS, UltraEdge detected the tiniest of murmurs. The problem for the third umpire was that it was difficult to say whether it was of bat hitting the pad or a tiny edge. In such cases, the on-field call generally stays but Paul Reiffel seemed convinced to overturn it, much to Pant's shock.
It was a body blow for India and from then on, the result was a foregone conclusion even with Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin at the crease. The nature of the pitch and India's lack of intent with the blade meant that Pant had to bat all the way through to get the job done. The Tamil Nadu duo did hang around a bit but Ashwin's attempted reverse sweep off Glenn Phillips ended his stay at the crease. The New Zealander then cleaned up Akash Deep for a duck next ball to hasten the end. Fittingly for New Zealand, Ajaz sealed the game as Sundar's missed his attempted slog sweep to be cleaned up.
Of the three New Zealand wins in the series, this arguably came on the toughest pitch of them all. The visitors won a handy toss and to be fair, batting wasn't that difficult on the morning session of the first day. But things unraveled quickly thereafter as the game got completed inside two-and-a-half days. As many as 14 wickets fell on the opening day while 15 perished on the second day. Today, the 11 remaining wickets fell before the halfway mark of the day. On such a difficult surface, batting was bound to be a lottery and batting last certainly wasn't going to be easy.
Credit, though, to the Black Caps as they got a respectable first innings total thanks to Daryl Mitchell (82) and Will Young (71) whose fifties propped the innings up even as the others struggled to get going. Ravindra Jadeja (5-65) and Washington Sundar (4-81) used the conditions well after the hosts had started erratically on the opening day. New Zealand were 159/3 at one point, eyeing a total of 275-plus if not 300 but were eventually bundled out for 235. Ashwin had an indifferent outing and was wicketless in the first innings.
India had a golden opportunity to bat New Zealand out of the game. While the surface was deteriorating, gaining a lead of about 60-70 or 100 would have been game-defining. Unfortunately for the home side, only Shubman Gill (90) and Rishabh Pant (60)
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