N.Z. chances demolished by spinners

Press, 7 December 1988, Page 84

N.Z. chances demolished by spinners

By

DAVID LEGGAT,

of NZPA in Hyderabad

It took India just 110 minutes yesterday to make sure it would wrap up the cricket series against New Zealand with almost a day and a half to spare in the third and deciding test at the Lal Bahadur stadium.

In that time, India ran thrdugh New Zealand’s second innings taking seven wickets for 59 runs to bowl it out for just 124. That left it needing only 21 runs to win and the openers, Kris Srikkanth and Arun Lal, took just 11 minutes and 14 balls to get them. Srikkanth finished on 18 and Lal 0. There were four extras.

New Zealand has produced several stirring fightbacks during the series, but it could not manage another yester,day as India’s spinners, Arshad Ayub and Narendra Hirwani, made the initial incisions in the New Zealand innings and the champion all-rounder, Kapil Dev, removed the threat of a rearguard action.

It was a top-class demolition job on a pitch which, although playing the odd trick, could not be blamed for the fall of any of the 10 New Zealand wickets in its second innings.

Thirteen days of fighting to achieve parity in this series were consigned to history as eight New Zealand batsman combined to produce a paltry 10 runs, only the captain, John Wright and, to a lesser degree, Richard Hadlee, showing the fighting qualities which had been the hallmark of the New Zealand side earlier in the series.

Wright’s was an outstanding hand of 62 in 230 minutes and, when he gave Ravi Shastri a return catch 10 minutes before lunch, he was deprived of the chance to become only the second New Zealander to bat through a test innings — after Glenn Turner, who did it twice.

Ayub and Hirwani shared six wickets in the innings to maintain the dominance they achieved in New Zealand’s first innings of the series. Their grip on the series was never loosened and they shared 41 of the 60 New Zealand wickets to fall in the three tests.

Only briefly, when Wright and Hadlee were together, did there seem even the remotest likelihood of India having anything slightly substantial to chase in the final innings of the match. They added 38 in 64 minutes for the seventh wicket before Kapil was called in and within seven balls he had completed New Zealand’s destruction.

Hadlee, lan Smith and John Bracewell — the latter two among New Zealand’s grittiest fighters at the crease throughout the series — were dismissed and the Indian captain, Dilip Vengsarkar’s, pre-match assertion that his team was the superior in the series had

been proved correct. Srikkanth and Lal denied the New Zealanders even the slim consolation of a second innings wicket. Srikkanth took five off Ewen Chatfield’s first over, nine, including two flashing cuts off Martin Snedden’s next, and got the winning runs by tickling Chris Kuggeleijn’s first ball to the fine leg fence.

NEW ZEALAND First innings 254 Second innings T. Franklin c Kapil b Hirwani 15 J. Wright c and b Shastri. 62 A. Jones c Vengsarkar b Ayub 5 M. Snedden lbw b Ayub. . 0 M. Greatbatch lbw b Hirwani 5 T. Blain c Lal b Hirwani . 0 C. Kuggeleiin c Sharma b Ayub 0 R. Hadlee c More b Kapil 31 I. Smith b Kapil 0 J. Bracewell lbw b Kapil . 0 E. Chatfied not out 0 Extras (w5, Ibl) 6 Total 124 Fall: 49, 58, 60, 71, 75, 80, 118, 118, 124. Bowling : Kapil Dev 10, 3, 21, 3 (w4); S. Sharma 4,0, 13, 0 (wl); A. Ayub 25, 12, 36, 3; N. Hirwani 23, 10, 43, 3; R. Shastri 3.3, I, 10, 1. INDIA First innings 358 Second innings K. Srikkanth not out .... 18 A. Lal not out 0 Extras (b 4 4 Total (for 0 wkts) 22 Bowling: E. Chatfield 1,0, 5, 0; M. Snedden 1,0, 9,0; C. Kuggeleijn 0.1, 0,4, 0. India won by 10 wickets.