Unbelievable. Unimaginable. Inconceivable. Incredible. Or maybe even more than that…
Now, only one word fits – ‘Reality.’
Since 1955, New Zealand has been touring India. A Test series win had always eluded them…
Winning a series was out of reach for years. Just to taste victory in a single match, they had to wait year after year. Before this series, they only had two wins in India: one in Nagpur in 1969, the other in Mumbai in 1988…
Few people saw any chance for them this time either. They had just been whitewashed in Sri Lanka, where their batsmen struggled against the spin of Prabath Jayasuriya and Nishan Peiris…
This team came to India without their most experienced batsman, Kane Williamson. Just before the tour, Tim Southee stepped down from captaincy. Tom Latham was no stranger to the captaincy role, but this was his first series with regular responsibility.
The most anticipated outcome for this team was to be whitewashed. But they made history. They became the first New Zealand team to win a series in India…
In their previous 36 Tests in India, they had won only two. This time, they won both matches in the two-match series…
Even after winning the first Test, we thought it was an upset, a fluke. New Zealand proved that it was all well-deserved. They earned every bit of it…
India’s almost invincible journey for over a decade came to a halt. They lost a home series after 4,331 days…
Before this Test, Mitchell Santner had never taken more than three wickets in a single innings or more than six in a match over his previous 28 Tests. In the two recent Tests in Sri Lanka, he had given away 197 runs and taken just one wicket. Here, he took seven wickets in the first innings, six in the second…
This is what fairy tales are made of…
In 1988, Ian Smith scored a fifty on the way to victory in Mumbai, and this time, he witnessed the series win from the commentary box, saying, “One of the most memorable successes in New Zealand’s Test history…”
Congratulations to Gary Stead… a highly ‘underrated’ but very positive, skillful, and successful coach…
Congratulations to Tom Latham… outstanding captaincy in both Tests…
Congratulations to New Zealand… the dream of every team around the world has come true for them.
