India win 3rd Test, bag series 1-0
NAGPUR: India's spinners rediscovered their best form, destroying New Zealand's batting lineup to record an emphatic innings and 198-run victory in the final test on Tuesday.
Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and part-timer Suresh Raina took turns to torment the batsmen on a pitch that aided spin, and the Kiwis losing their last nine batsmen in just over a session.
New Zealand was all out for 175, with Harbhajan taking three wickets to run through the middle order, before paceman Ishant Sharma also took three wickets to clean up the tail.
New Zealand, which had a first-innings deficit of 373, will be disappointed with a meek surrender in the final test after stubborn efforts forced draws against the odds in the opening two matches.
Harbhajan Singh (3-56), Pragyan Ojha (2-67) and Suresh Raina (2-1) took a couple of wickets each in the morning session to push New Zealand toward defeat, reducing the visitors to 140-8 at lunch. Ishant Sharma (3-15) dismissed the tail-enders to end the match with more than four sessions left to play.
India's bowlers had come in for some criticism after the No.1-ranked test nation struggled for wickets against the relatively modest Black Caps' batting lineup in the opening two tests.
However they responded impressively from the very start of Tuesday's play.
Resuming at 24-1, New Zealand soon lost last match's double-century maker Brendon McCullum, trapped lbw by left-arm spinner Ojha for 25, adding just 10 runs to his overnight score.
After dismissing McCullum with the last delivery of his second over, Ojha struck again with the first one of his third.
Martin Guptill was given lbw by umpire Simon Taufel, even though replays showed the ball had pitched well outside leg-stump. New Zealand fell to 38-3 and could not wriggle out of the grip of the spinners as Harbhajan Singh replaced Ojha in the attack.
Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh dismissed night-watchman Gareth Hopkins when Gautam Gambhir took a fine bat-pad catch lunging to his right at short-leg. He also got the wicket of Ross Taylor, caught by substitute Cheteshwar Pujara in the same position, but the batsman was not happy with the bat-pad decision.
Kane Williamson was clean bowled by Sharma and then part-timer Suresh Raina came on to bag two wickets in two overs with his innocuous off-spin. Jesse Ryder, batting with a runner due to a calf injury, gave a catch to Sharma at mid-off. Raina then trapped captain Daniel Vettori lbw.
Sharma came back to dismiss highest-scorer Tim Southee, who had three sixes in his knock of 31, and Chris Martin off successive deliveries to complete the rout.
