India has dominated Test cricket over the last few years thanks to some superb performances by their fast bowlers, while the batsmen have also backed them up with Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara leading the way. But the aggression and drive to completely bury the opposition have also been one of the main factors behind their rise. However, a completely different Indian team turned up in Wellington and as a result, collapsed against the Black Caps.
New Zealand emerge as India’s nemesis in ICC tournaments after Wellington Test victory
While India had won all their 7 previous matches in the WTC, they dropped their first points in the ongoing World Test Championship when they lost the 1st Test in Wellington to New Zealand by 10 wickets on Monday morning. It means that New Zealand has now emerged as winners in all 4 of their latest encounters with India in major ICC tournaments. New Zealand has now beaten India 3 out of 3 times the 2 teams have clashed in an ICC tournament since the 2016 World T20. India’s last win vs New Zealand in an ICC tournament was the 7-wicket win in the 2003 World Cup.
The only team to beat India during their maiden World T20 triumph during the ICC World T20 2007 was New Zealand. Inspite of a good start provided by Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in the 191-run chase, Daniel Vettori’s 4-wickets with just 20 runs in 4 overs led the Kiwi team to a 10-run victory.
During ICC World T20 2016, India restricted the Kiwis at 126/7 in Nagpur However, New Zealand’s spin trio of Mitchell Santner, Nathan McCullum and Ish Sodhi picked 6 wickets to restrict the Indian to a mere score of 79.
The most famous encounter between the two teams that were most talked about as well as the ICC World Cup 2019 when the two teams faced each other at the semi-final match. Due to rain, the match went on for 2 days. India’s batting failed them once again in the pursuit of 240-run target but it wasn’t till the run-out of talisman MS Dhoni that the Kiwis knew they had booked a place in the final of the World Cup for the 2nd time in a row.
The recent one is the ICC World Test Championship 2019-21 where India was again bested by New Zealand on Monday in both the innings. With totals of 165 and 191 across the 2 innings, India’s poor performance let the Kiwis get away with a hefty 183-run lead.
It is perhaps time for Team India to rethink its strategy before the second Test in Christchurch and go back to what they do does best – bury the opposition by turning up the heat with the bat, ball and attitude on the field, with their captain Virat Kohli leading by example.
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