STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsThere couldn’t be anything happier than seeing a full day’s play, thank the rain gods as they had been winning the majority of the sessions in the WTC final. New Zealand resumed day five trailing by 117 runs. The entire first session moved at snails’ pace as the Kiwis batsmen scored only 34 runs in 23 overs. They also lost Ross Taylor and Henry Nicholls both in quick intervals. Kane Williamson who added only seven runs in the first session picked up the pace in the second. However, it was the cameo of Kyle Jamieson that brought them close to the first inning total. Just when New Zealand went ahead of India, skipper Williamson was packed off one run short of a half-century.
A lead of 32 runs is what New Zealand managed to get before India wrapped it up at the brink of Tea. In reply, India lost Shubman Gill early, but Rohit Sharma looked in complete control until a shambolic leave saw his departure. India are 32 runs ahead with two of their most important batsmen, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara at the crease.
There were few iconic and noteworthy stats from the fifth day’s play at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton. Here are a few of them:
Ishant Sharma goes past Kapil Dev
With the wicket of Devon Conway late on day three, Ishant Sharma had gone past Kapil Dev’s tally of 43 wickets on English soil. On the fifth day, he extended that lead to 46. More to his joy, there are five more Tests starting from August, in which he can further extend his lead. Amongst Asian bowlers, he went past Waqar Younis’s tally of 45 wickets to enter the top five.
Ross Taylor, the first to 18k runs for NZ
The all-time highest run scorer for New Zealand in ODI’s and Tests, embarked a new landmark to his name on route his innings of 11 against India. When he hit a boundary against Mohammed Shami in the 57th over, Taylor reached 18000 international runs. The first New Zealand player to achieve this feat and he margins ahead of the second. Stephen Fleming with 15289 runs is behind him and Williamson is at 15156 runs.
Kyle Jamieson stretching his long legs
As soon as Jamieson came into bat, he had an aggressive intent and looked to score runs quickly. It was not only through boundaries but through singles and doubles as well. In balls ranging between four to ten, which is a span of seven balls, he had run three and five doubles. All those five doubles came in one over (84th over). Since 2001, this was the first instance of a batsman running five twos’ in an over of a Test.
Shami bags the best spell
In conditions like the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia), bowlers like Shami can be deadly. There were times when Shami was inconsistent with his line and lengths but he was the bowler against whom the Kiwis struggled the most. Hence, he was the highest wicket taker for India in the first innings. Shami’s spell of 4 for 76 is the first instance of an Indian bowler bagging a four-wicket haul in a major ICC event final across formats. Previously, Mohinder Amarnath’s spell of 3 for 12 runs against West Indies in the 1983 ODI World Cup was the best for an Indian.
A Slowpoke’s game
The overhead conditions in Southampton have been very suitable for the bowlers. This is one of the reasons why both teams struggled to score runs at pace. In the first innings, India scored at a run rate of 2.4. On the other hand, New Zealand scored at a slightly better run rate (2.5), thanks to their lower-order batsmen. However, from both the innings combined, this match saw a run rate of 2.43. This is the third-lowest run rate in the first two innings of a Test in England since 2000.
Tim Southee bags 600 wickets
It was an iconic day for a few of the New Zealand players as they registered some significant records. Firstly, Taylor registered 18000 international runs and then Williamson went past Fleming's tally of 7172 runs to become the second-highest run scorer for New Zealand in Tests. Southee bagged both wickets that fell today for India. With the first wicket of Shubman Gill, Southee got to his 600th international wicket. Daniel Vettori leads the chart for New Zealand with 696 wickets. Southee has 312 wickets in Tests, 190 in ODIs, and 99 in T20Is.
