India conquer Kiwiland after 41 years

Zeecric Bureau/Vaibhav Arora Wellington, April 07: Ending 41 year old jinx, India won a historic Test series (1-0) in New Zealand even as heavy rain denied them a well deserved victory in the Third Test on Tuesday.The tourists were on the threshold of their second win in the three Test series with New Zealand struggling at 281/8 in the post lunch session when rain forced players off the field. The tourists had earlier thrashed New Zealand by 10 wickets in the first Test at Hamilton while the second game at Napier ended in a draw. India’s last Test series triumph in New Zealand came way back in 1968 when MAK Pataudi’s men had defeated the Kiwis 3-1. Just when it looked like nothing could stop India from a well deserved victory, there was light rain, which soon took the form of heavy showers as the Indians looked helplessly towards the ominous looking cloud cover. At the time when play was called off, Daniel Vettori (15) and Iain O’Brien (19) were holding fort for the Kiwis. Gautam Gambhir was declared the Man of the Match and Man of the Series for his outstanding performance. Zaheer Khan ended the match with figures of 7 for 122 including a fiver in the first innings while Harbhajan Singh added seven wickets to his Test victims tally for 102 runs, which included 4 for 59 in the Kiwi second innings. It was a windy day in Wellington which saw the Indian bowlers struggle to break the overnight partnership of Ross Taylor (107) and James Franklin. The duo frustrated the Indians with a 142 run stand before Taylor was cleaned up by Harbhajan. Skipper Dhoni then made an intelligent decision by bringing in Sachin Tendulkar and was immediately rewarded with a couple of wickets in the final minutes of the morning session. First to be dismissed was Brendon McCullum, who was caught at slip by Rahul Dravid while next in line was James Franklin, who was caught in front of the stumps off a spinning delivery. New Zealand went into lunch with the scorecard reading 254/7. The battle looked lost for the home team after Harbhajan got rid of Tim Southee in the second over, bringing India within sniffing distance of a rare Test series triumph in New Zealand. Southee was dismissed as he misread a floater that took the outside edge of his bat and went into the safe hands of Dhoni behind the stumps. The result could have been different had Ishant Sharma managed to hold on to a chance offered by O’Brien. The Kiwi batsman swept a full toss from Tendulkar straight into the hands of Sharma, who dropped the crucial chance at square leg. Little play was possible thereafter as rain came to the home team’s rescue. Earlier in the morning, New Zealand batted cautiously as Ross Taylor completed his fourth century in Test cricket. The Indian fielders looked a bit tired towards the end of a long tour as Franklin and McCullum got dropped by Gambhir and Munaf respectively. Taylor’s 107, which came in 165 deliveries was studded with 16 glorious hits to the fence. The partnership of 142 between Taylor and Franklin is the best ever fifth wicket stand for New Zealand against India.