NZ VS IND - 2nd Test, India tour of New Zealand, 2020

NZ 2-0 IND | 16:15 Local Time | 08:45 IST: It all began with an ODI win in Bangalore, when the Indian side hustled to the airport, intoxicated with the euphoria of a heartening win, for New Zealand. It simply didn't feel serious. There might've been the night in England that India attempted to forget, but the T20Is vindicated their aberration theory. And then, the ODIs and the Tests led to a homesick landslide, during messy middle phase of the tour. 5-0 to India, 3-0 and 2-0 to New Zealand: ebbs and flows are an understatement, don't you think? Alright then, that's it from our studio, as I, Rishi Roy, head for an extended slumber to compensate for 39 days of mayhem for my body cycle, alongside Raju Peethala, Ramakrishnan MS, Praveen, and Nikhil Jadhav, who can probably relate. That's it from the Kiwi country then. It's been real. *Bids goodbye with hip millennial hand gesture*

Harsha Bhogle: It didn't help that India lost two key tosses but good on Kohli to say that he won't look at that as a factor

Harsha Bhogle: New Zealand outbowled India in spite of Bumrah's fire in the 2nd test and Ishant in the 1st. But the decisive factor was the absence of opening partnerships that sets the scene for everyone else.

T20: NZ 0-5 India | ODI: NZ 3-0 India | Tests: NZ 2-0 India

Kane Williamson | New Zealand captain: Outstanding feeling. Fairly sporting surfaces in both Tests. Bowlers had to put it in the right areas, but this pitch played well on all the days, even though history suggests it flattens out after doing a bit initially. I think therein lies the value of the 30-40 run partnerships. I don't think the end result shows how tight that match was. We saw how many times the ball beat the bat. A fantastic series from outside and the way the guys stuck in. India are a world-class side and to beat them is quite satisfying. Jamieson's a very exciting talent, and contributed incredibly well with both bat and ball in both games. He's tall and gets bounce which is very helpful in these conditions. The runs he scored in the backend of both games were very valuable. Great progress for him. The guys had to be disciplined, and the wicket was doing enough, but the fast outfields did allow runs, and it was important to hang in there. A few heavy learning curves, a few good bits in this summer, but these are all part of it. You're always trying to improve and the two games here have been opportunities to learn too.

Virat Kohli (2/2): We are not a side that thinks about the result of the toss. Yes it did give a bit of extra advantage to the bowlers in the first two hours of each Test, but as an international side playing so well over two, three seasons, you are expected to go out and execute in those conditions. We were not able to do that this time. We are not going to take excuses from this tour, just the learning and the mistakes we committed and try and improve as we move forward. T20s were pretty good. In the ODIs it was good to see the youngsters stepping up with Rohit not being available and me not getting runs. Those are a few positives, but as a Test team we were not able to play the kind of cricket we wanted to. We need to accept we were not good enough, take it on the chin and improve those things.

Virat Kohli | India captain (1/2): I think it was a matter of not having enough intent in the first game. We played well in the first innings here with the bat. We also need to give credit to the New Zealand bowlers, they bowled in the right areas long enough, created a lot of pressure. There were hardly any opportunities, that meant you have to play extravagant shots for runs than just keep rotating strike. It was a combination of us not having the right kind of execution and New Zealand playing well. The consistency of their bowling was outstanding, forced us to do mistakes. We are usually a batting side that fights. Batsmen didn't do enough for the bowlers to attack. It's disappointing as a side when the batsmen don't back up the effort of the bowlers. To win series and matches outside home you need to have a balanced performance with bat and ball and in the field - take those chances as well. We need to go back, understand what went wrong and correct those things moving forward.

Tim Southee is the Player of the Series for taking 14 wickets.

Kyle Jamieson, Player of the Match: It's been pretty surreal couple of weeks, just to be part of the group and win a couple of matches feels good. Pitch conditions obviously help and trying to find the fuller length and making decisions more often about the length and sometimes natural variations take over. It's certainly time that I work on a lot on my batting, especially batting lower down the order and in both tests the partnerships down the order have made a difference. Having had a small taste of Test cricket, it's important to work on things and come back better.

The Test: It was a green carpet. The batsmen despise it, because it renders their preparation immaterial. They don't fancy their odds against the uncertainty and the randomness of the seaming ball, and New Zealand were simply better than India at exploiting that, aided partially by the toothlessness of the Indian batting and their lack of understanding of the word "intent". In fact, Jamieson and Wagner outdid the Indian batsmen, even with the bat, in terms of application on this wicket. It was their partnership that minimized India's first innings lead and led to their downfall - particularly when the wound was ripped open further by India's abominable 2nd innings batting. The bowling in the fourth innings showed penetration far too late, when it simply didn't matter, with minimal impact. It was far too easy for the Kiwis in the end. India have been outclassed.

NZ winning two Tests in a series vs India
2002/03 (Home)
2019/20 (Home)

Sixth consecutive series win at home for New Zealand

The Whitewash series - 15:48 NZST | 08:18 IST: The way New Zealand have flipped this, is quite surreal. They were tortured over the last few months, rubbing salt into the super-over wounds - against England, and twice in a row against India. Add to that the predicament of a 0-5 loss at home, and rockbottom had been redefined. And then it began: 0-3 in the ODIs, when the ghosts of the World Cup semi-final came back to haunt India, and they never recovered: they were tactically, technically outdone in the Test matches. Not to mention the serious lack of character from the batting, and the sporadic bursts of penetration from the bowling unit. It's simply not good enough.

Captains winning most Tests after opting to field:
13 G Smith (19 Tests)
11 S Waugh (11)
10 C Lloyd (17)
09 K Williamson (13)*

Jadeja to Henry Nicholls, 1 run, New Zealand 2-0 India. Henry Nicholls whip-drives this full ball to long-on to pick up a single that takes them to Test win #101. Handshakes all around, as the highly-animated characters on the field metamorphose into their composed personas. As clinical as it could get from the Kiwis, with something to smile about after the lows of 2019 and the T20I series...

Jadeja to Henry Nicholls, no run, full ball on the pads, nudged to mid-on

Jadeja to Henry Nicholls, no ball, India review! Misses out on the cut, I think as Pant grabs it before jumping on a trampoline. But it's a no-ball by Jadeja! He was confident about taking the review, but didn't know he overstepped. Nothing on hotspot either. Terrible error in judgement, and scores are level

India review! Misses out on the cut, I think as Pant grabs it before jumping on a trampoline. But it's a no-ball by Jadeja!

Jadeja to Henry Nicholls, no run, dropped on a shortish length, punched off the backfoot towards cover

Jadeja to Henry Nicholls, no run, nudged towards midwicket off the pads

Jadeja to Henry Nicholls, no run, lunges forward to defend a toss-up to mid-off

Jadeja to Ross Taylor, 1 run, laps this one from outside off to fine leg for one