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    • Ind vs NZ – 3rd Test – Eight balls in Wankhede – India’s post-Halloween horror story
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    Ind vs NZ – 3rd Test – Eight balls in Wankhede – India’s post-Halloween horror story

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    India might be somewhat justified in believing that their struggles in this series against New Zealand were the result of coinciding circumstances. The rain in Bengaluru. The toss in Pune. But the chaos in Mumbai is less easy to wish away.

    They topped the table and took seven wickets for 76 runs to restrict the opposition to 235, then responded with 78 for 1 off 17 overs on a pitch where first-innings runs will be incredibly important. Everything went according to plan until Friday at 4:47 PM. And then, in the next five minutes, everything fell apart. Three wickets in eight legal balls, and a day to claim, were once again on the line.

    The Indian players in the dressing room could only watch in horror. A set batter falling in a reverse sweep with approaching stumps. A night watchman rejected the first ball and used a review. A world-class run-out on its way to a fast single. Morne Morkel had his head in his hands. Ravindra Jadeja didn’t even have time to react that much.

    “Everything happened in ten minutes,” Jadeja said at the end of the first day’s play in Mumbai. “But it happens. It’s a team game. You can’t blame one person. Everyone makes mistakes. The next batters will have to build a partnership and try to get (the score) above 230. Only then will the second innings come in the game. So it will be better if the incoming batters contribute.”

    New Zealand has done what few others have been able to do, and has persevered until the moment when the balance can shift. They showed it in Bengaluru in their first innings as Tim Southee and Rachin Ravindra added crucial lower-order runs. They showed it in Pune when they dropped India from 50 for 1 to 156 all out. And they showed it again here, breaking a 53-run tie between Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal with 13 minutes to go to stumps and then topping that with Virat Kohli’s direct strike.
    “You want to keep taking wickets,” said Daryl Mitchell, who top-scored for New Zealand with 82. “It’s always fun. Look, it’s the nature of the surface and playing Test cricket here, the ebb and flow happens all day and we’re happy with how we hung in there as they were building a partnership, and if you get one, hope you can get two and three.

    And that’s our motto, just keep giving to the team, the way Rachin and some other guys chased the ball to the boundary, we’re always proud of that. “It means everyone is involved, everyone is giving to the team so that if we get one, hopefully we get another and it’s nice that it paid off tonight.”

    Kohli was fully dressed when the second wicket fell, but Mohammed Siraj came to bat. The night watchman fell first and burned a review trying to survive. Kohli then came in but he caught Matt Henry’s arm at mid-on and lost. Rishabh Pant came out. It was a good thing that no more wickets fell because the next man, Sarfaraz Khan, was not in his whites.

    India have already lost this series and are looking to avoid their first ever home whitewash in a series of three or more Tests. Everywhere they went they were reminded of these things. Was their plunge into this potentially avoidable situation a sign of a team buckling under pressure? Jadeja didn’t think so.

    “Only the individual can tell what is going on in his head,” he said. “But when you are behind in the series and a situation like that happens, you feel panic because you are 2-0 down and you have made a mistake. But if you are 2-0 up and the same thing happens, everyone says it happens.” But when you’re behind in the series, even the little things start to look big. Our top order has made mistakes, so the next six batters should go close to or beyond 230. If we bat well in the first innings, that will be the case. easier in the second.”

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