India endured a horrid morning on the 2nd day of the ongoing 1st Test vs New Zealand on Saturday as they added just 43 runs losing the remaining 5 wickets to get bowled out for 165 in their first innings. While overnight batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant had looked solid during their 103-ball stand for the 6th wicket, a bizarre run-out cost the latter his wicket ultimately fuelling a batting collapse that saw the visitors lose 5 wickets for the addition of a mere 33 runs.
In the 59th over of the Indian innings on Saturday morning, Rahane set off for a single after dropping the ball towards the point region. Pant took a couple of steps towards the striker’s end before realizing that Ajaz Patel was converging on the ball fast and yelled a big ‘no’ towards his advancing senior. Rahane, though, was guilty of ball-watching and kept running towards the non-striker’s end.
In the end, Pant sacrificed his wicket as a soft throw from Patel flicked the bails off with Pant well short of the crease. Incidentally, this was the first time in Rahane’s career that he has been involved in a run-out dismissal.
Pant was followed by R Ashwin to the pavilion next ball as he couldn’t get bat on an away-swinging delivery from Tim Southee. Rahane too couldn’t survive long and became Southee’s 3rd victim when the ball took a faint edge off his bat towards the wicketkeeper. Mohammed Shami did offer some resistance with a 20-ball-21 but couldn’t prevent his team from being bowled out for 165.
This is now the 2nd-lowest 1st innings total for India in Tests under Virat Kohli after the 107 India managed in the 2018 Lord’s Test. Overall, under Kohli, India have now endured sub-200 totals in 1st innings of Tests for 5 times now. Out of these, India have managed to win 2 matches (Bengaluru 2017, Johannesburg 2018).
