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Star all-rounder Mitchell Santner led New Zealand to a historic victory in the Pune Test, handing the Indian team their first home series loss in twelve years. With Santner taking 13 wickets in the match, the victory was New Zealand's first Test series win on Indian soil. After lunch on Day 3 of the second Test, the Indian batters, with the exception of Yashasvi Jaiswal, utterly collapsed as they struggled to chase 359 runs. Rohit Sharma harshly criticised the batters after the match.
Rohit Sharma slams the batters
"Disappointing. It's not what we expected. Got to give credit to NZ - they played better than us. We failed to capitalise on certain moments. We failed to respond to those challenges. And we sit here today. Didn't think we batted well enough to get runs on the board. You've got to pick 20 wickets to win, yes, but batters have to put runs on the board. Was a great fightback to restrict them to 250-odd but we knew it was going to be challenging. When they started off, they were 200/3 and for us to come back and get them bowled out for 259 was a great effort," said Rohit Sharma in the post-match presentation.
"Wasn't a pitch where a lot was happening. We just didn't bat well enough. Things would've been slightly different had we got a bit closer in the first innings. We want to show up well at Wankhede and try and win that Test. It's a collective failure. I'm not somebody who would blame just the batters or the bowlers. We will come out with better intent, better ideas and better methods at Wankhede," he added.
NZ beat India by 113 runs
On the third day of the second Test, New Zealand defeated India by 113 runs. Mitchell Santner claimed his second consecutive five-wicket haul of the game, and being given a huge target of 359 runs to win in the fourth innings, India was unable to overcome his threat. New Zealand won the game, gained an unbeatable 2-0 series lead, and achieved a historic first series victory in India.
Additionally, it was their first World Test Championship (WTC) away series victory. The Blackcaps had only won two of their 37 games in India going into the series, and they had previously suffered a 0–2 loss against Sri Lanka. But they outspun themselves and put an end to India's long-standing home dominance.
