India lost besides ton from Dhawan – 1st Test

Feb 9, 2014

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New Zealand 503 (Brendon McCullum 224, Kane Williamson 113, Ishant Sharma 6-134) and 105 (Ross Taylor 41, Tim Southee 14, Sharma 3-28) beat India 202 (Rohit Sharma 72, Ravindra Jadeja 30*, Neil Wagner 4-64) and 366 (Shikhar Dhawan 115, Virat Kohli 67, Neil Wagner 4-62) by 40 runs.

New Zealand maintained their supremacy in the ongoing series vs. India who surrendered the opening Test against the quality quick bowling on a bouncy track.

Brendon McCullum, the skipper of New Zealand, was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his magnificent knock of 224.

The first Test of the two match series concluded on Sunday, February 9, 2014, at Eden Park, Auckland.

Neil Wagner - Grabbed 8 wickets with his lethal pace bowling — Neil Wagner – Grabbed 8 wickets with his lethal pace bowling

Earlier, the tourists went into bat at 1-87 after 25 overs whereas Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara were at the crease at 49 and 22. The first attained his fifty on the fifth ball of the day but the latter was gone at 96 for 23 and was replaced by Virat Kohli. The duo kept on cruising with authority and was marching towards the target of 407 successfully. Kohli was the most aggressive of the two and attained his 9^th Test fifty with a boundary. Dhawan changed his gears as well and smashed his second Test hundred in the 59^th over by dispatching 1 six and 2 fours.

The solid partnership of 126 runs for the third wicket came to an end at 222 when Kohli was dismissed for 67. Shikhar Dhawan followed him 26 runs later for 115 off 211 deliveries with 1 six and 12 fours. The coming two batsmen went out cheaply and the visitors were reeling at 6-270 while their captain, MS Dhoni, along with Ravindra Jadeja kept the hopes alive for their team. The pair opted to attack and the score went past three hundreds mark in the 85^th over.

Trent Boult struck for the Black Caps and removed Jadeja for 26 as the total touched 324. Dhoni was the only batsman who kept on fighting whereas the tail order batsmen were unable to assist him positively. He became the 9^th victim for 39 and the entire Indian team was bowled out for 366 after utilising 96.3 overs.

Neil Wagner was the supreme bowler with four wickets whereas Trent Boult and Tim Southee shared three each.

New Zealand triumphed in the thrilling encounter by a margin of 40 runs and leads the series at 1-0.