Left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner took the best figures of his career, 7 for 53, as New Zealand grabbed a 103-run advantage in the second Test at the MCA Stadium on Friday by bowling India out for 156 in the second session.
A day after Washington Sundar ran New Zealand ragged, it was time for Santner to torment the Indian batters through a stunning exhibition of varying his pace, line and length, flight, and dip as he rattled out his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests by bowling relentlessly from the commentary box end.
Glen Phillips 2-26 backed him well and he was further eased by some poor short selection and loss of nerve from the Indian batters, who now handed a big lead to New Zealand, especially with India slated to bat last on the pitch. That puts India in line to lose a Test series at home for the first time since 2012 till they conjure up something extraordinary to save the game.
Shubman Gill and Jaiswal began the day so well with a 49-run stand for the second wicket. However, once Gill was trapped lbw by a quicker delivery from Santner, the wickets started tumbling for India.
The Pune crowd became stunned into silence when Virat Kohli went for a pre-mediated slog-sweep off Santner but he missed the low full toss which was going below his bat to hit the stumps, leaving the ace batter shell-shocked.
Phillips strikes with his first over of part-time off-spin as Yashasvi Jaiswal comes forward to defend, but presents an outside edge to first slip. Then comes Rishabh Pant, who had planned a pull off Phillips way off the ball only to see it rush past his bat and hit the stumps.
With the possibility of playing an inside-out shot closed, Sarfaraz Khan went inside-out against Santner and ended up miscuing it to mid-off. Santner had another moment of absolute joy when, on the quicker delivery, he got Ravichandran Ashwin lbw and capped off a brilliant session for New Zealand to leave India in disarray once again.
Jadeja could have been out first ball post-lunch when a diving short leg took a catch off his inside edge, which New Zealand didn't review, and replays later showed a spike on the ultraedge. He then put pressure back on Santner with two boundaries before dancing down the pitch to hit Ajaz Patel for two sixes.
But Santner claimed his fifth wicket of the innings as he received a length ball outside off-stump to spin in and caught Jadeja on the crease, trapping him lbw. Jadeja walked back for 38 as he went for the review but replays showed that the ball clipped leg-stump.
After Sundar had smashed two fours and a six off Ajaz, Santner quickly wrapped up India's innings by knocking over Akash Deep's off-stump and trapping Jasprit Bumrah lbw to take the team off the field in ascendancy.
Brief Scores: New Zealand 259 in 79.1 overs lead India 156 in 45.3 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 38, Yashasvi Jaiswal 30; Mitchell Santner 7-53, Glenn Phillips 2-26) by 103 runs.
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