It turned out to be an eventful Day 2 in the Mumbai Test between India and New Zealand as India are sitting in the driving seat. History was written as Ajaz Patel became the third bowler in the history of Test match cricket to pick up 10 wickets in an innings. Although, this performance was overshadowed by the ruthless approach of Indian bowlers as New Zealand registered their lowest score against India in Test matches.
On a day that belonged to Ajaz, India was dismissed for 325 with Mayank Agarwal top-scoring with 150. The opener continued from where he had left from as he quickly raced to 150 before being dismissed. Along with Axar Patel, he added a 67-run stand for the seventh wicket as India were successful in getting to a total in excess of 300.
Ajaz on the other hand was writing a story of his own by picking up wickets consistently. In the 110th over of the match, he dismissed Axar to create history. Axar scored 52, scoring his maiden Test fifty to steer Kohli’s men into a commendable position in the match. Ajaz ended with figures of 10 wickets for 119 runs.
The history by Ajaz wasn’t the only one on the day as New Zealand stumbled down to a 62. This was their lowest score against India in Test cricket, beating their previous total of 94 set in 2002 at Hamilton. Only two batters could manage to get into double figures as Tom Latham (10) and Kyle Jamieson (17) salvaged them to the score of 62.
Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets while Mohammed Siraj picked up three wickets. Axar also got into the act with a couple of wickets. New Zealand trailed by 263 runs at the end of their first innings. The Blackcaps were eligible for follow-on.
India though decided not to give the follow-on and came out to bat. Shubman Gill was missing from the team as he sustained an elbow injury; Cheteshwar Pujara came to open with Mayank Agarwal. The openers made a slow start to the second innings as India finished the day on 69 unbeaten at stumps on Day 2. Overall India are leading by 332 runs with still three days of the Mumbai Test match remaining. A total of 16 wickets fell on the second day.
