Mitchell Santner played a starring role by taking 6-104 as New Zealand claimed their first Test series win in India with a 113-run victory in the second Test.
Santner had been pivotal in putting New Zealand in the driving seat, taking seven wickets on day two in Pune, with his six-for as India were dismissed for 245 in their second innings netting him a match haul of 13 wickets.
New Zealand won the toss in the second Test and elected to bat, making 259 before India mustered only 156 in response.
The Black Caps pushed on from 198-5 at the start of day three to post 255 in their second innings, Tom Blundell with 41 and Glenn Phillips 48 not out to add to Tom Latham’s 86.
Despite a solid start from opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who top-scored with 77, and 42 from Ravindra Jadeja, India fell well short of their target as Santner finished with match figures of 13-157 as well as scoring 33 in the first innings.
“Winning a series over here is very tough,” said Santner, who was named player of the match.
“I feel a little sore [with bowling unchanged from one end], but you have to keep going. Every time I got a wicket, it felt better. I just tried to land the ball in the same spot with little changes in pace.”
India had previously lost only three Test series on their own turf – to South Africa (2000), Australia (2004-05) and England 12 years ago. They had won their previous 18 series in a row at home, most recently defeating Bangladesh 2-0 this autumn after a 4-1 victory over England at the start of the year.
New Zealand have toured India since 1955 and had only managed to win two Tests there prior to this series – in 1969 and 1988.
“We are proud to be in this position. It is a really special feeling and a whole team effort,” said Latham.
“Putting runs on the board at the start was really important. Santner was fantastic. We have had to adapt to different surfaces and we did that very well. The last two wickets took an age, but we were really happy when it happened.”
“It is not what we expected,” said Rohit Sharma, India’s skipper. “New Zealand played better than us. We failed to capitalise on certain moments and didn’t bat well enough to get runs on the board. You have to take 20 wickets to win a test, but batters have to put runs on the board.”
The final Test takes place on November 1 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
