His overexcitement is understandable, for the Blackcaps were batting well when he dropped this prediction.
Former New Zealand speedster, Mitchell McClenaghan, has been trolled heavily after his bold prediction about the first-innings score fell flat. On his official X (formerly Twitter) account, Mitchell wrote, “400?”, meaning he supposed the Kiwis to score big.
His overexcitement is understandable, for the Blackcaps were batting well when he dropped this prediction. Rachin Ravindra was in full flow, playing shots all around the ground to put bowlers under pressure in the powerplay, while Will Young and Kane Williamson also looked positive during their stay on the crease.
However, Kuldeep Yadav wreaked havoc right after he came into the attack, removing Rachin on the first ball of his spell before dismissing Kane Williamson. As New Zealand lost two quick wickets, social media users were quick to quote and reply to McClenaghan’s post, reacting with hilarious posts.
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People mostly trolled him by reminding him about Kuldeep, while one section reduced the predicted score and gave their number as a score New Zealand would end up with. While the Blackcaps can still score around 400 in the first innings, that would require a special effort and looks unlikely, so the prediction by Mitchell McClenaghan is bound to fail, especially after these wickets.
India have taken three wickets in this innings so far and all have been by spinners. Varun Chakravarthy provided the first breakthrough by dismissing Will Young in the eighth over before Kuldeep weaved his magic.
From 57/0, New Zealand slipped to 75/3 in no time, with Indian bowlers suddenly becoming unplayable. The start was fabulous for the Blackcaps, who understood the importance of powerplay overs and went after speedsters to maximise the field restrictions.
However, these three quick wickets undid all the hard work and they had to rebuild. Daryl Mitchell and Tom Latham have started rebuilding and are slowly taking the innings forward.
Both are quality spin players, so they must bat deep to tackle Indian spinners and lay a good foundation for big hitters in the lower order. For India, the key will be to take regular wickets and restrict New Zealand to as low a score as possible.
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