It was such a beautiful delivery by Southee, who was accurate with his lines and lengths from the first delivery of the innings.
Tim Southee dismissed the Indian captain Rohit Sharma with an unplayable delivery on the sixth delivery of the third over in Pune. It didn’t have significant movement, but the ball seamed away just enough to beat Rohit’s outside edge.
Southee bowled a length delivery on the middle and off stump line, which Rohit tried defending from the crease. However, the ball moved away very late after hitting the deck and went past the batter’s defence to rattle the stumps.
It was such a beautiful delivery by Southee, who was accurate with his lines and lengths from the first delivery of the innings. Rohit probably played for an incoming delivery, so he didn’t cover the stumps completely, but Southee is a smart operator and gauged it immediately.
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Hence, he decided to nip the ball away and squared up Rohit, who has had so many good deliveries early in the innings throughout this home Test season. Maybe Rohit could have played it better by keeping the outside edge in mind, but the bowlers have been very accurate to him at the top, and the Indian captain registered another low score, getting out on a 9-ball duck.
After winning the toss, New Zealand opted to bat first, and the decision looked correct at one stage. While they lost Tom Latham in the eighth over, other batters got starts, with Devon Conway (76) again looking solid in the middle.
At one stage, New Zealand were going strong at 197/3 and looked set to post another big total for India. However, Washington Sundar unweave his magic and took seven wickets to bundle New Zealand on a mere 259 when they should have posted much more than they ended up with.
Later, during India’s innings, Rohit Sharma couldn’t contribute much with the willow, but Yashasvi Jaiswal (6) and Shubman Gill (10) saw out the day for India. They would hope to stretch this partnership and put India in a commanding position.
Meanwhile, Rohit hopes to get over these low scores and come up with a big one in his next outing. He will also need some luck going his way.
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