The second day’s play of the second Test between India and New Zealand unfolded with exceptional performances, notably highlighting Mitchell Santner’s record-breaking bowling that punctuated the match with historic reverence. Santner, emerging as an unexpected hero, etched his name into the annals of cricketing history with remarkable figures of 7/53, the best ever achieved by a New Zealand spinner in an innings against India, apart from Ajaz Patel’s astonishing 10/119 just three years ago at the Wankhede Stadium.
Santner’s 7/53 stands prominently among New Zealand’s best bowling performances. Only Ajaz Patel’s legendary 10-wicket haul and Richard Hadlee’s mesmerizing 7/23 in Wellington in 1976 outshine Santner’s effort. Such a feat underlines a significant milestone for the player who seems to have truly found his stride late into his international career.
By claiming 54 wickets, Santner secured the third-highest total by a New Zealand bowler at the time of his maiden five-wicket haul, trailing only behind the distinguished John Reid’s 63 and Richard Collinge’s 61. This game marked Santner’s 29th Test appearance, with his prior best being 3/34. Additionally, this represents only his second five-wicket haul in all first-class cricket, his previous being an impressive 5/51 for Northern Districts against Central Districts in Mount Maunganui during the 2022/23 season.
Santner joined an exclusive club by inflicting four LBW dismissals, a joint-record for a bowler in Tests played in India. The last visiting bowler to achieve such a feat was Australia’s Steve O’Keefe at the same venue in 2017. Earlier in the match, India’s Washington Sundar was a significant destroyer of New Zealand’s batting line-up, bowling out five Kiwi batters in the first innings. This feat of five dismissals in an innings has been matched only a handful of times by Indian bowlers, such as Jasubhai Patel, Bapu Nadkarni, Anil Kumble, and Ravindra Jadeja in different noteworthy Test encounters.
Throughout the initial two innings of the match, spinners remarkably took 19 wickets, making it the joint second-highest recorded on Indian soil. This parallel harks back to the 1952 Kanpur Test, where spin entirely dominated both first innings between India and England, a similar scenario also unfolding in the 1969 Test between India and New Zealand in Nagpur.
This Test has showcased only the sixth instance where bowlers from each side took seven-wicket hauls in the first two innings—Washington Sundar’s 7/59 and Mitchell Santner’s 7/53. It’s been 25 years since such an event occurred, and it’s the very first time it involves two spinners making their mark.
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Historical milestones continued with India, who conceded more than 100 runs in first innings leads in consecutive home Tests within a series—a pattern unseen since the legendary 2001 series against Australia. During this match, India allowed a substantial 356 runs in Bengaluru, followed by 103 runs in this Test. Notably, India managed to secure a win only once after such a scenario, famously overcoming a 274-run deficit at Eden Gardens against Australia to clinch a victory by 171 runs.
Analyzing the bowling speeds, New Zealand spinners averaged 84.5 kph from wicket-taking balls in India’s first innings, whereas Indian spinners released at a quicker average of 90.0 kph from ten dismissals of the visitors. Santner achieved his seven wickets at an average speed of 82.7 kph, peaking at 89.9 kph against Ravindra Jadeja. Comparatively, Washington Sundar bowled at an average of 90.4 kph, reaching up to 94.1 kph.
On the batting front, Yashasvi Jaiswal continued to draw awe, joining an elite group of five batters to accumulate over 1000 Test runs in a calendar year before turning 23. He becomes the first Indian to achieve this milestone, following in the steps of players like Alastair Cook in 2006. Jaiswal has the opportunity to break the record set by Graeme Smith, who tallied 1198 runs in 2003, with five Tests remaining in 2024 to make history.