Rishabh Pant hammered a brilliant half-century on a turning and crumbling track as India reached 92/6 in 20 overs at lunch on the third day of the third Test, needing 55 more runs to win the match and salvage their pride.
After ending the New Zealand second innings with the addition of just three more runs from the overnight score of 171/9, India needed to chase 147 in the fourth innings to seal victory. Rishabh Pant was batting on 53 with Washington Sundar at six.
But things went haywire as they slumped to 29/5 with Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan failing to apply themselves.
Pant kept the Indian hopes alive with a majestic innings, mixing aggression with caution as he and Ravindra Jadeja added 42 runs for the sixth wicket.
Patel was the best bowler for New Zealand as he claimed 4-43, adding to the 5-103 he had already taken in the first innings. This took his tally at Wankhede to 23, making his the only visiting spinner to take 20 or more wickets at a venue.
Needing 147 to win the match on a pitch offering sharp turn and variable bounce, the Indian batters decided to be aggressive, taking inspiration from the way Pant had batted on Saturday morning.
Rohit Sharma struck a boundary each of Matt Henry and Ajaz Patel, a reverse sweep. But in his anxiety to dominate the attack, the India skipper played a rash shot and was caught superbly by Glenn Phillips running back from midwicket. Rohit was out for 11 and India were down to 13/1.
Things turned worse when Shubman Gill (1), who made a composed 70 in the first innings, was bowled out, offering no shot at a delivery by Patel, hoping it to turn away. But the ball went straight and clattered into the stumps.
India’s troubles were compounded further as Virat Kohli was done in by a superb delivery by Patel, which turned and bounced a bit, hitting the shoulder of the bat for Daryl Mitchell to dive forward and scoop a fine catch, India down to 18/3.
It became 28/4 when Yashasvi Jaiswal fell LBW to Glenn Phillips for 5 off 16. The young opener from Mumbai played for the turn but it went straight. Jaiswal used the DRS but ultra-edge proved the ball had hit the pad and missed the bat.
The procession continued as Sarfaraz Khan rammed a full toss from Patel down to Rachin Ravindra at midwicket for 1 run.
Pant, as he did in the first innings of this Test, hammered Patel for a big six, jumping down the track to drive over the bowler’s head. He then hit Phillips to back-to-back boundaries, walking down the pitch to drill it straight past the Ish Sodhi at long-on and then swept him fine for another boundary. India reached 50 in the 11th over.
New Zealand could have had Pant in the 12th over when the left-hander early into a pull at a short one pitched outside off by Patel, the ball going along to hit the back pad. Only Patel made a half-appeal and New Zealand did not review the decision and were ruing their luck when it was shown on the big screen that the ball had evaded the bat and would have gone on to clip the leg stump. Pant was batting on 21 at that time.
Pant and Jadeja took the score to past 70 as they added 46 runs for the sixth wicket partnership.
With Pant leading that partnership, allrounder Jadeja (6 off 22) had to just stay at the wicket but he could not manage it for long as he tried to whip it away through onside as Pant has done on a few occasions but Will Young picked a diving bat-pad catch at forward short-leg to make it 71/6, leaving India needing 76 runs more runs to win the match with four wickets in hand.
Washington Sundar was dropped by David Conway for a difficult catch, making good ground, as the batter tried to pull the shortish delivery.
Pant scooped Phillips behind for a superb boundary and then hammered Patel for successive fours to bring his fifty off 48 balls, hitting seven boundaries and one six. His half-century kept India’s hopes alive as they now needed 55 runs.
Earlier, Ravindra Jadeja claimed the second five-wicket haul of the match as India bowled New Zealand for 174 in 45.5 overs.
Starting at the overnight score of 171/9, New Zealand’s second innings lasted just 14 balls in eight minutes on the third morning, adding just three runs to their score as Ajaz Patel got out trying a slog.
This helped Jadeja claim his second five-wicket haul of the match, finishing with overall figures of 10-120, his second-best-ever haul after the 10-110 he claimed against Australia at New Delhi in February 2023. This was Jadeja’s 15th fifer in 77 Test matches, taking his overall tally to 319.
Brief scores:
At lunch, day 3: New Zealand 235 and 174 all out in 45.5 overs (Will Young 51; Ravindra Jadeja 5-55, R Ashwin 3-63) lead India 263 and 92/6 in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant 53 not out; Ajaz Patel 4-43) by 55 runs.