Sarfaraz, Pant show admirable gumption but India sets NZ a measly target of 107

BENGALURU: As great as India’s counter-punch was in the second innings with Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant taking India’s 125-run deficit to a lead by the afternoon session without losing any wickets, its middle order and the tail just couldn’t handle the second new ball from the fiery Kiwi quicks forcing the host to look up at the skies hoping for a miracle.

At stumps on the fourth day, New Zealand only needed 107 runs to win before bad light stopped the play here at Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. The Men in Blue went from 408 for three to 462 all-out within the span of 20 overs after the Kiwis opted for its second new ball.

The shifting tides of day four saw India dominate the first session with Sarfaraz notching up his maiden ton (150 off 195b, 18x4, 3x6) and Rishabh Pant thrashing the Kiwi bowling unit scoring 99 runs (105b, 9x4, 5x6) before falling agonisingly short of one run to complete his ton. This was the seventh instance Pant got out in the nineties.

Sarfaraz and Pant built on the foundation provided by Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal to establish complete dominance over the first part of the day by adding 177 runs for the fourth wicket partnership.

Slight drizzles half an hour before lunch stopped the play and came as a relief for New Zealand at that point of time as the batting duo looked unstoppable. At that time, India was 344 for three, trailing by just 12 runs.

Even though the brief pause gave Kiwis the time to settle, it didn’t take too long before Pant took off as he slog-swept the fourth ball after the play resumed over long-on off Rachin’s over to continue what he did in the morning.

But all the damage took place when the second new ball was taken immediately to put an end to what looked like a day of dreams for India.

The rush of watching Sarfaraz and Pant go all guns blazing was cut short abruptly when Sarfaraz fell immediately after reaching the 150-run milestone.

Pant was still at the crease and was still in good touch, which sustained the team and fans’ hope of a miraculous escape after the horrible first innings collapse. But that was short-lived.

A couple of overs later, just as he was close to scoring yet another century, William O’Rourke broke through to rattle his stumps in his first ball of that spell.

O’Rourke returned to accentuate the crisis by snapping KL Rahul, who failed to negotiate a delivery that had an extra bounce. In his next over, he got the wicket of Ravindra Jadeja to get three maiden-wicket overs in a row.

Brief scores: India 46 & 462 in 99.3 overs (Sarfaraz Khan 150, Rishabh Pant 99, William O’Rourke 3/92, Matt Henry 3/102) vs New Zealand 402 & 0/0 in 0.4 overs