Batting frailties to the fore as NZ beat India for historic whitewash (Ld)

Mumbai, Nov 3 (IANS) India's batting frailties came to the fore once again as the hosts, despite a fighting performance in both innings by Rishabh Pant and a 10-wicket haul by Ravindra Jadeja, lost the third Test at the Wankhede by 25 runs as New Zealand became the first team to sweep a series 3-0 in India.

Pant scored 60 in the first innings and followed it up with a majestic fighting 64 in the second, rescuing the hosts from 29/5 to take them past 100 in their tricky chase of a 147-run target, which would have helped the hosts avoid a 0-3 whitewash.

Shubman Gill scored a patient 90 in the first innings, a brilliant knock and the highest score by a batter in this match, but a lack of desire on the part of the batters to stay put and defend on a challenging track and poor shot selection by the top-order resulted in India succumbing to a 25-run defeat and a 0-3 whitewash for the first time at home.

Pant's controversial dismissal in the second innings, in which the third umpire overturned the umpire's decision on DRS despite inconclusive evidence, would be talked about for the next many weeks. Also to be discussed a lot will be the abject surrender by the Indian batters throughout the series, barring a superb partnership between Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant in the first Test.

New Zealand outplayed India in all departments of the game, rattling them with pace to dismiss for 46 on the first day of the opening day while dismissing the hosts for 156 in the first innings in the second Test in Pune and then bundling them out for 121 on Saturday.

Ajaz Patel claimed a double fifer in the Test with 11 wickets for 160 as New Zealand, despite being bowled out for 174 in their second innings in the morning, came back strongly to reduce India to 29/5 on Saturday, from which the hosts recovered to go past 100 before falling short by 25 runs, getting bowled for 121.

India had restricted New Zealand to 235 in their first innings but could not take a big lead, failing to capitalise on a 96-run partnership between Pant and Gill for the fourth wicket, and were all out for 263, gaining only a lead of 28 runs.

Jadeja and Ashwin bowled brilliantly late on the second day, claiming nine wickets between them. But the batters failed once again on Sunday as Patel claimed 6-57 and Glenn Phillips bagged 3-42 as India were bowled out for 121.

India lost the match in the final few overs on the first two days of the Wankhede Test, losing three wickets for seven runs in 10 minutes on the first day and allowing Glenn Phillips to hammer 26 off 14 deliveries towards the end of the second day's play on Saturday.

On Sunday, India ended New Zealand's second innings with the addition of three runs to the overnight score of 171/9. But their batting came unstuck once again as they lost skipper Rohit Sharma (11), Yashasvi Jaiswal (5), Shubman Gill (1), Virat Kohli (1) and Sarfaraz Khan (i) in quick succession as all of them failed to apply themselves, succumbing to the pressure.

Pant waged a lone battle, mixing aggression with caution as he, along with Ravindra Jadeja, added 42 runs for the sixth wicket partnership to keep India's hopes alive.

Jadeja suffered from a rush of blood and after Pant was given out controversially, India lost their way and were dismissed for 121.

This is one of the worst results in a series for India at home in recent times, as it ended their run of 18 series wins in 12 years and left them wondering about what to do in the upcoming Australia tour.

Brief scores:

New Zealand 235 and 174 all out in 45.5 overs (Will Young 51; Ravindra Jadeja 5-55, R Ashwin 3-63) beat India 263 and 121 all out in 29.1 overs (Rishabh Pant 64, Ajaz Patel 6-57; Glenn Phillips 3-42 ) by 25 runs.

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