Southampton: The scheduled 5 days of play in the ICC World Test Championship title match between India and New Zealand are over. Now who will be the king of the test or both will be declared joint winner in case of draw. It will be decided on Reserve Day. The first and fourth days of the match were completely washed out by rain, due to which the match had to be moved to the sixth day as well.
Till the stumps of the 5th day, the Indian team scored 64 runs in their second innings for the loss of 2 wickets in 30 overs. Captain Virat Kohli (8), while Cheteshwar Pujara is unbeaten on 12 runs. Both openers Shubman Gill (8) and Rohit Shama (30) were dismissed LBW by Tim Southee, adding to the pressure on India. However, Team India has a lead of 32 runs. On the sixth day, India will try to score fast runs and give a safe target to the Kiwi team and then try to all out.
Earlier, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma bowled brilliantly but captain Kane Williamson’s patience and Tim Southee’s attacking innings helped New Zealand take a first innings lead over India. New Zealand’s first innings ended on 249 runs just before the tea break on the fifth day. In this way he took a lead of 32 runs in the first innings. India had scored 217 runs in their first innings.
Shami (4 for 76) made good use of the ‘seam’ to dodge the batsmen with his full length deliveries while Ishant Sharma (3 for 48) also bowled well. Ravichandran Ashwin (2 for 28) and Ravindra Jadeja (1 for 20) also took wickets but Jasprit Bumrah disappointed. The first session started late due to rain with 23 overs in which New Zealand scored only 34 runs and lost three wickets in the meantime.
