WTC final: Team India on backfoot as they lose four wickets in morning session on Day 3
Kyle Jamieson was the pick of the bowlers for New Zealand as he dismissed skipper Virat Kohli and wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant.
24.2 overs - 65 runs scored and 4 wickets, it was New Zealand's session as the Kiwi bowlers were right on the money from the get-go in the morning session on the third day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final and didn't let any of the Indian batters to get off the hook.
India had a poor start to their morning as Kyle Jamieson, New Zealand's best bowler on the show in the first innings, dismissed his RCB teammate and skipper Virat Kohli only in the third over of the day. Jamieson kept it tight and in the channel of uncertainty and adjusted his length to a fuller one to bring LBW into consideration and he reaped the benefits of it straightaway.
Kohli, who was trying to shuffle every ball was set up beautifully by the 6'8" pacer as he bowled three balls in the outside-off channel and followed it up with one angling in and it came in sharply. Kohli missed getting the bat on it and was rapped in front as he couldn't add anything to his overnight score of 44.
Jamieson shortly followed that dismissal by pegging India further back accounting for Rishabh Pant. Ajinkya Rahane, after which, played a few shots and looked the most assured batsmen of all in the line-up. However, Neil Wagner's execution of a perfect set-up led to the undoing of the vice-captain, who fell just one short of a deserving half-century.
Ravichandran Ashwin came in at No 8 and after seeing off Wagner's hostile spell, he started playing his shots. There was a cheeky-edged boundary over the slips but he followed that up with a couple of backfoot punches off Tim Southee, one straight down the ground and one through the covers. However, it was one shot too many for the veteran offie as he edged one and Tom Latham took his third catch of the day.
Jadeja survived a scare after New Zealand finally dropped a catch in the slips and got India through to lunch without any more hiccups as India were on 211/7 at lunch and would be looking to add 40-50 more runs to get India to a competitive total of 250 on that surface.