The second and final Test of the India versus New Zealand series begins in Bangalore this weekend. It is, of course, a shame that the series is only two Tests; indeed it barely counts as a ’series’ in that regard. But New Zealand may be thanking the stars (or the two respective cricket boards) that this is the last one. Whilst they had periods in which they contended, they were very poor overall in the Hyderabad Test and were comprehensively outplayed.
It is an unfortunately common situation for New Zealand supporters. It has been said in the past that they punch above their weight in ODIs, but it is perhaps more accurate to say that they punch below their weight in Tests. They have some very talented cricketers; a fact which was on display a few times last winter. But too often they fail to apply themselves mentally and that is what we saw at Hyderabad. The only really encouraging performances came from the bowlers; Trent Boult and Doug Bracewell both bowled quite well, particularly on the opening morning when they got considerable swing movement. If the fielding had been better they might have really restricted India. But in addition to the fielding, the batting really let them down. They weren’t helped by some howlers from the umpires, but I doubt even the most myopic of Kiwis would suggest that made a difference to the final result.
For India, they will not want to change much at all. The first Test could hardly have gone better and they will take a lot of heart from the way Ravichandran Ashwin bowled. It has been suggested that they may be lacking a world-class spinner and there’s still a lot Ashwin has to do to disprove that, but this is as good a start as he could have made. India may ask for a bit more from their top order though. Sehwag was extremely fortunate to get past twenty, let alone forty and some of the others were quite careless as well. But it is unlikely to matter any more in the next Test than it did in the last one.
For New Zealand to have a chance in this Test they need to bat with more discipline that they showed in the last Test. The problem is that is is clearly not going to be that simple; they have been lacking in discipline for some time and it is not just going to get better over the course of a week. They will probably show some improvement as they did in the West Indies, but I cannot see them winning the Test and I would be pretty surprised if they even managed to draw it. I don’t think it will be another innings victory for India, but I do think it will be a 2-0 whitewash for them.
Article By Badon Decker