Picture perfect (Source: BCCI) As the two-Test match series between India and New Zealand came to an end on Monday with the hosts emerging as winners, the Board of Control for Cricket in India tweeted a heartwarming picture of Indian spinners Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja and New Zealand spinners Ajaz Patel and Rachin Ravindra standing in sync.
With the camera capturing them from behind with the players’ names on the individual jerseys, it made for the perfect ‘Axar Patel-Ravindra Jadeja’ moment shortly after the game got over.
In Sync! ☺️
How’s that for a quartet! 🇮🇳 🇳🇿#INDvNZ #TeamIndia @Paytm pic.twitter.com/eKqDIIlx7m
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 6, 2021
India carried out a decimation of New Zealand, winning the second Test by a record-breaking 372-run margin to clinch the two-Test series 1-0 with comeback-man Jayant Yadav cleaning up the visiting team’s lower half on the fourth morning.
At exactly 10.13 am, 43 minutes to the start of the day, Ravichandran Ashwin (4/34) benefitted from a reflex stumping by Wriddhiman Saha and also completed his 300th wicket on Indian soil to finish the proceedings in a jiffy as New Zealand were all out for 167 in 56.3 overs.
The margin of victory is India’s highest ever on home soil. For a team that had fought tooth and nail in Kanpur, the extra bounce and turn did pose familiar problems for the Kiwis in a match they will try to remember for Ajaz’s 10-wicket heroics.
The win in which India ticked almost all the boxes save their middle-order woes will give skipper Virat Kohli lot of confidence going into the away series against South Africa starting in three weeks’ time.
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