India fell to their first series defeat at home in 12 years as New Zealand put together an excellent performance in Pune to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead. The star of the show for the Kiwis was Mitchell Santner, who took 13 wickets across the two innings to gut India’s batting.

India were set a target of 359 in the fourth innings, and had started off in a positive manner with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma. However, Sharma’s struggles with the bat continued as Santner dismissed him for 8 with a bat-pad catch to Will Young at short leg.

Former India coach and leg-spinner Anil Kumble provided a window into the guile that Santner used to dismiss the Indian captain. Kumble pointed out that Rohit’s willingness to use his crease and edit length gave Santner an opportunity to set a trap for him.

Speaking to the broadcasters as an expert, Kumble explained the process used by Santner. “[Rohit] played the reverse sweep and he also stepped out. He used all the options, unfortunately for him it was seen by Santner early and then he bowled it slightly shorter and then it bounced to Rohit Sharma,” explained Kumble.

Rohit had taken a couple of steps down the pitch to try and reach the pitch of the ball, but Santner fired it in shorter and flatter. Rohit tried to fend off the delivery but was only able to edge it softly into the air.

‘One advantage that Santner has…’

“I thought the intent was right but of course, it was well bowled by Santner,” continued Kumble. “We should also give credit to Santner because he saw him coming. The one advantage that Santner has is he releases the ball really late and that probably helped him in seeing Rohit come at him and drop length a little bit,” concluded the legendary spinner, indicating how the Kiwi orthodox bowler was able to set the trap.

Santner took career best figures with his first Test five-fer in the first innings, taking 7-53. And backed it up with 6 wickets in the second innings as well. He dismissed Virat Kohli in both innings, and also forced the run-out of Rishabh Pant in the second innings in a remarkable all-round performance.

New Zealand won the Pune Test by 113 runs, comfortably taking a 2-0 lead in what can be considered one of the more high-profile upsets in recent memory. India will be desperate for a win at the Wankhede Stadium to regain some points in the WTC race, before they prepare to fly to Australia for a five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

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