04 November,2024 09:23 AM IST | Mumbai | R Kaushik
New Zealand players celebrate their 3-0 series win over India yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble
The highest possible break in a frame of snooker is 147. That requires the cueist to follow each of the 15 reds with a black, then pick off the six colours one by one, all in succession. It isn't an impossible task, but it isn't commonplace either, which is why in certain televised tournaments, the perfect break is rewarded with a prize of 147,000 pounds.
In cricking parlance, 147 isn't a huge total. Even in the fourth innings of a Test on a turning track, for a side hailed as one of the strongest batting units, it's far from impossible. Not straightforward, admittedly, but hardly mountainesque.
Yet, all India managed on Day Three of the final Test against New Zealand, on a tricky Wankhede Stadium strip, was a modest, meagre, anemic, unbecoming 121. The 25-run victory gave Tom Latham's New Zealand a resounding 3-0 triumph and made them the first team in Test history to inflict a clean sweep of India on Indian soil in a series of more than two Tests.
Through Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin on Day Two, India had restricted the Kiwis to 171-9 in their second innings on Saturday, an overall lead of 143 after the hosts extended their first innings to 263. It took the Indians just 14 deliveries on Sunday's third morning to pack off New Zealand for 174, Jadeja taking his second five-wicket haul of the game.
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What followed in the next 45 minutes wouldn't have been out of place in a horror movie. Smallish targets can be pesky, so Rohit Sharma decided attack was the best form of defence. But when things aren't going your way, they just don't. The skipper perished in the third over to a mistimed pull well caught by Glenn Phillips back-pedalling from mid-wicket, the first of five wickets to fall in 26 deliveries for the addition of 16 runs. At 29-5, left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel taking three of those, the 20,000-plus crowd lost its voice until Rishabh Pant counter-attacked like only he can, scattering the field and fusing intent with intelligence like no other Indian batter before or after him.
Till Pant was at the crease, bludgeoning his way to a second excellent half-century of the game, India were in with a chance. Pant dragged them to within 41 of the target when he jumped down the track to Patel, realised he wasn't to the pitch of the ball and thrust his pad at it. The ball ballooned up in the air for Tom Blundell to complete the catch. Umpire Richard Illingworth negated the appeal and even though there was no conclusive evidence that Pant had nicked the ball on to his pad, TV umpire Paul Reiffel suggested overturning the decision and ruling in New Zealand's favour. Pant took an eternity to drag himself off the park, aware that India's last hope had disappeared with him.
Phillips then struck twice in two balls before Ajaz defeated Washington Sundar's slog-sweep to celebrate picking up his second five-for of the Test. It was all over - game, set and match to New Zealand, heartbreak, humiliation and introspection for India.
25
No. of wickets claimed by Ajaz Patel in just two Tests at Wankhede
Brief scores
NZ 235 & 174 (W Young 51; R Jadeja 5-55, R Ashwin 3-63) beat India 263 & 121 (R Pant 64; A Patel 6-57, G Phillips 3-42) by 25 runs
