India played some fantastic cricket in the second Test against New Zealand, defeating the Black Caps by 178 runs on Monday. With Virat Kohli and his men having already won the first Test in Kanpur, India have also clinched the three-match Test series.
India, who started Day 4 on 227/8 with a lead of 339 runs, were bundled out for 263 runs, and Ross Taylor's team were always in the back foot with New Zealand requiring 376 runs in the fourth innings to win the second Test.
Initially, the New Zealand openers showed some strong character and determination. The duo of Tom Latham and Martin Guptill added 55 runs for first wicket before the latter was dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin for 24 runs. Later, Latham and Henry Nicholls were involved in a decent partnership, but Ravindra Jadeja trapped the left-hander for 24 runs.
From there on, New Zealand began to lose wickets at regular intervals, with Ashwin, Jadeja and Mohammed Shami asking questions to the batsmen on a regular basis. However, Latham should be praised for his batting performance, where he top-scored with 74 runs.
After Ashwin dismissed Latham, India were well on course to victory, though Luke Ronchi scored a decent 32 runs. With the failure of the lower order batsmen to score runs and stay at the batting crease for longer duration, New Zealand were dismissed for 197 runs in the fourth innings of the Test match to hand India another Test victory under Kohli's leadership.
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