WTC Final, India vs NZ, Day 3: Jamieson, NZ openers push India on backfoot

Brief Scores: New Zealand 101 for 2 (Conway 54, Ashwin 1-20) trail India 217 (Rahane 49, Jamieson 5-31) by 116 runs.

Kyle Jamieson took 5/31 in first innings. He has five 5-for in just 8 test matches. (©StarSports)

Be it with bat or ball, New Zealand dominated Day 3 of the World Test Championship Final on Sunday. Kyle Jamieson starred with the ball, picking his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests. He broke the back of the Indian batting line-up, picking the crucial wickets of Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Rohit Sharma. India soon found themselves getting bowled out for 217 runs.

New Zealand openers in Tom Latham and Devon Conway looked resolute in the second innings. The duo didn’t allow India to pick early breakthroughs as they shared a solid 70-run stand for the opening wicket.

Here’s a look at what happened over the course of the day:

First session

1) 65 Runs, 4 Wickets in 24.2 overs

The numbers would tell you that New Zealand dominated the first session of the third day of the WTC final. The Blackcaps broke India’s back after picking 4 wickets inside the first session, giving away just 65 runs.

Kyle Jamieson once again proved out to be the standout bowler amongst all. He took India’s first wicket of Rohit Sharma yesterday and picked the first wicket on Day 3 as well in the form of Virat Kohli. Jamieson claimed the most important wicket in only his second over of Day 3, sending Kohli back to the pavilion on the overnight score of 44 runs.

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2) A trap set by Kyle Jamieson for Kohli which couldn’t have gotten better

Virat Kohli looked rock-solid on Day 1. He rarely played a bad shot yesterday. However, he succumbed to a perfect trap set by Kyle Jamieson, who was brilliant on Day 3 with the ball.

He bowled three length balls outside the off stump swinging away or going in straight. The fourth one came back into Kohli, missed the inside edge to hit his pads. He was plumb in front of the middle and India were put on the backfoot straightaway with the score reading 4-149.

3) Rishabh Pant and Ajinkya Rahane’s wickets pushed India back even more

Jamieson followed it up with the third important wicket of Rishabh Pant in the 74th over. Rishabh Pant took his time at the crease before opening his account with a four off his 20th ball. However, he couldn’t resist the temptation of a wide delivery bowled by Kyle Jamieson and slashed hard at it only to be pouched by Tom Latham at second slip. On seaming tracks of England where the ball is doing just that much, Pant going after a wide delivery could never be a safe shot to play. He got out after making 4 runs and India were in serious trouble at 5-156.

Ajinkya Rahane looked more comfortable at the crease than yesterday. However, a short-ball plan undid him eventually. New Zealand had a man at deep square-leg and a man at square leg just for Rahane to fall prey and he did. He played a short arm jab to a short ball delivered at his body from Wagner straight to the man at square leg to leave India in all sorts of trouble at 6-182. Rahane gave away a great start, getting out on 49.

Ravichandran Ashwin scored a few boundaries, took his chances but eventually edged one to slips off Southee. One-shot too many led him getting out on 22 off 27.

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At lunch, India were 211 for 7 after 89 overs.

Session 2:

1)The Wrecker-in-chief Kyle Jamieson

The man in form, Kyle Jamieson didn’t take too long to send back tailenders as he further took two more wickets of Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah to complete his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests. Jamieson, with a bowling average of 14.13, sits at number three in this respect in the all-time list of bowlers with a minimum of 40 wickets to their name.

Jamieson bowled a lot fuller on the third day, compared to yesterday. He bowled so well that he only gave just over 1-run an over. He returned with figures of 31 for 5 in 22 overs at an economy of 1.41. With that spell, he also broke Sir Richard Hadlee’s record of the most economical five-wicket haul against India. Sir Richard Hadlee had returned figures of 47 for 5 in 33 overs at an economy of 1.42 against India in the Christchurch Test in 1981.

Ravindra Jadeja was the last batsman to get out as India were bundled out for 217 runs in the first innings.

Tom Latham and Devon Conway stitched a 70-run opening stand for kiwis on Day 3. (©Blackcaps)

2) Tom Latham and Devon Conway deny India early breakthroughs

There was little movement for Indian bowlers in their first spell. Jasprit Bumrah and Ishant Sharma pitched the ball a bit shorter than the Blackcaps. Ishant Sharma didn’t swing the ball as much as he is known for and wasn’t too disciplined with his lengths either. Nor was Jasprit Bumrah. According to Cricviz data, the degree of swing for Indian bowlers was lesser than their New Zealand counterparts. All New Zealand seamers were able to swing it over 2 degrees whereas only Ishant Sharma out of the three Indian seamers was able to swing the ball close to 1.7 degrees. Shami and Bumrah were able to swing the duke ball to 0.5 degrees only.

Mohammad Shami coming in as the first change did ask some questions though. He looked good with his lengths, however, there wasn’t a lot of seam movement on offer. Having said that, you don’t want to take anything away from Tom Latham and Devon Conway, who looked resolute in their approach and didn’t give any chances to the opposition until the umpire called Tea on Day 2.

Latham and Conway stayed unbeaten at 17(70) and 18(56) respectively and New Zealand were on 0-36 after 21 overs.

Session 3

Latham and Conway consolidated their position even after lunch. The duo put on a 70-run stand for the opening wicket before Ashwin gave India the first strike when he had Latham caught at short extra-cover off a flighted delivery.

In a boost to India’s ambitions, Ishant Sharma got the wicket of Devon Conway in the final over of the day’s play with a full delivery angled into the batsman who scooped it to Mohammed Shami at mid-on. Conway amassed 54 runs off 153 balls. New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson and veteran batsman Ross Taylor are currently unbeaten at 12 and 0, respectively.

The day 3 certainly belonged to New Zealand as India would be desperate to bounce back on Day 4 of World Test Championship Final.

Day 4 Southampton Weather Forecast

"Cloudy throughout Monday with heavy showers continuing to push northwards. Showers becoming lighter late afternoon but staying cloudy," according to the UK Met department.

There are 80-90% chances of rain on Monday in Southampton from Morning 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM. The fans could only hope that clouds stay away for play to continue on Day 4.

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