Mumbai: It’s 12:23 pm on a Sunday afternoon in Mumbai. Everything is about as normal as it can be outside the Wankhede stadium, but inside, over 20,000 people are observing silence while staring at the giant screen.
It’s tough to determine if Rishabh Pant is ‘out’ or ‘not out’ at this point. The sun's glare makes it difficult, but they begin to chant ‘Not out! Not out!’.
Pant, meanwhile, has walked over to the umpires, hoping this animated chat will somehow convince TV umpire Paul Reiffel to stick with the on-field umpire’s ‘not out’ decision. The screen turns red. Ajaz Patel (6/57) is swamped by his mates. Pant can’t believe his situation-defying 64 would end like this. The crowd groans. It then begins to chant ‘Cheaters! Cheaters!’.
Unfortunate as that was, New Zealand silenced them soon enough because exactly forty minutes from that controversial dismissal, the crowd was headed for the exits. The Test match was done. New Zealand had won.
At 1:03 pm on a Sunday afternoon in Mumbai, India suffered their first-ever whitewash at home in a three-Test series after going down by 25 runs.
They have suffered a sweep in the past when they went down to South Africa in 2000 but that was only a two-Test series. This, a 3-0 loss, is thereby a new low for Indian cricket.
How did a side go from winning 18 consecutive series at home to not being able to score 147 runs in a chase on a surface they used to call home? How the mighty have fallen!
Sure, Bengaluru was hard. Sure, Pune was hard. But that was down to how they bungled up their first innings. Not that that makes for a good excuse, but they were chasing New Zealand the whole time so you can assume it was harder on the mind.
Here, India were ahead. They lost a good toss, but they restricted New Zealand to 235, they then scored 263, and they then reduced New Zealand to 174 with Ravindra Jadeja’s second fifer in the game. All India had to do was score 147 runs with three whole days left to save face.
Then, Rohit Sharma chooses the wrong ball for the pull and gets caught at midwicket. Mistake.
Shubman Gill leaves the ball which lands just outside off stump, only to see it come in with the arm and onto the stumps. Mistake.
Virat Kohli looks to defend a ball that has his name on it (at this point it seems like all of them do) and nicks it to slip. Mistake.
Yashasvi Jaiswal plays for turn when there is none to get trapped in front of the stumps. Mistake.
Sarfaraz Khan sweeps a full toss straight down Rachin Ravindra’s throat at deep square. Mistake.
These errors meant India were down five wickets for 29 runs from 43 balls on a pitch which was only going to get worse for wear in this heat.
Only, Pant took everything and everyone out of the equation. The left-hander was doing what he had done en route to his 60 in the first innings, but this 57-ball 64 was trickier because the pitch had gotten trickier.
He picked apart the best bowler in this match - Ajaz (11/160) - with irrational ease, and Glenn Phillips was just fodder at this point. When he and Jadeja managed an essential 42-run alliance for the sixth wicket, and 71 for 5, it seemed like the drama would end.
Little did anyone know then that it was only beginning. Jadeja would clip a ball onto the pads and get caught by Will Young at short leg. Thirty-five runs later, Pant would be given out.
Pant danced down the track but realised the ball wasn’t there to be hit so looked to pad it away. The Kiwis were convinced there were two sounds there so proceeded to use their only remaining review to challenge the on-field umpire’s ‘not out’ decision. Even as cameras, screens, and angles continued to play tricks on the eyes of beholders, Reiffel told the on-field umpires to overturn the original decision.
There - in that very palpable moment - though, only 41 runs behind, India lost the Test.
Scoreboard
NEW ZEALAND (I Innings): 235 all out
INDIA (I Innings): 263 all out
NEW ZEALAND (II Innings 171/9): Ajaz c Akash b Jadeja 8 (23b 1x6) O’Rourke (not out) 2 (5b) Extras (B-12 LB-4 NB-1) 17 TOTAL (all out 45.5 overs) 174 Bowling: Akash 5-0-10-1 Washington 10-0-30-1 Ashwin 17-1-63-3 Jadeja 13.5-3-55-5 (nb-1).
INDIA (II Innings): Jaiswal lbw Phillips 5 (16b) Rohit c Phillips b Henry 11 (11b 2x4) Gill b Ajaz 1 (4b) Kohli c Mitchell b Ajaz 1 (7b) Pant c Blundell b Ajaz 64 (57b 9x4 1x6) Sarfaraz c Rachin b Ajaz 1 (2b) Jadeja c Young b Ajaz 6 (22b) Washington b Ajaz 12 (25b) Ashwin c Blundell b Phillips 8 (29b) Akash b Phillips 0 (1b) Siraj (not out) 0 (1b) Extras (B-12) 12 TOTAL (all out 29.1 overs) 121 Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Rohit) 2-16 (Gill) 3-18 (Kohli) 4-28 (Jaiswal) 5-29 (Sarfaraz) 6-71 (Jadeja) 7-64 (Pant) 8-121 (Ashwin) 9-121 (Akash). Bowling: Henry 3-0-10-1 Ajaz 14.1-1-57-6 Phillips 12-0-42-3. Result: NZ won by 25 runs. PoM: Ajaz Patel. Series: NZ won 3-match series 3-0. PoS: Will Young.