Kolkata Test: India thrash NZ, dethrone Pakistan as No 1 ranked team

Indian captain Virat Kohli jumps in the air to celebrate the wicket of New Zealands BJ Watling during the fourth day of the second Test match between India and New Zealand at the Eden Gardens cricket stadium in Kolkata on Monday PicAFPKolkata India pulled off a brilliantallround performance to trounce New Zealand by 178 runs inthe second Test to clinch the series with an unassailable 20lead which also propelled them to the top of the ICC rankingsdethroning archrivals Pakistan here todayVirat Kohlis men wrapped up the seriesdeciding victoryon the Fourth day of the match after setting the Black Caps amammoth target of 376 runs to chaseThe visitors showed some spark to start with but theirchase floundered in the posttea session and the side wasbowled out for 197 in 811 overs in what was Indias 250thhome TestThe home team had earlier finished its second innings at263 in 765 oversFollowing Rohit Sharmas 82run knock yesterdayWriddhiman Saha also picked up his second successivehalfcentury of the match by scoring a 120ball 58 laced withhalf a dozen foursFaced with an improbable chase New Zealand were off to aconfident start before things went downhill in the finalsession of the dayOpener Tom Latham topscored for them with a 148ball 74which included eight hits to the fenceHis innings gave New Zealand some hope of springing asurprise but offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin put paid to anysuch eventuality in just the second over after tea inducingan edge off his bat which was comfortably taken bywicketkeeper Wriddhiman SahaBesides Latham Luke Ronchi was the only one to play aninnings of significance accounting for 32 runs 60 balls4x4However rest of the Black Caps lineup failed to applyitself on the tricky track exploited well by both the pacersand spinnersAshwin and Ravindra Jadeja were the top Indianwickettakers with hauls of 382 and 341 respectively Amongthe pacers Mohammed Shami grabbed 346 in a fine concertedbowling performanceThe two teams will now move to Indore for the third Teststarting October 8 which would be followed by a fivematch ODIseriesAshwin celebrates a wicket with Kohli PicAFPEarlier India wrested back the initiative from New Zealand as spinners Ashwin and Jadeja reduced the visitors to 1353 at tea in pursuit of a 376run targetAshwin 262 and Jadeja 125 dented the tourists fightback in the second session of the play at the Eden Gardens hereOpener Latham notched up his ninth halfcentury to hold fort from one end as other toporder batsmen fell around himThe hosts took 16 overs in the innings to get the first breakthrough Ashwin pitched the ball fuller and it turned in from outside the off stump to catch Martin Guptill 24 49 b 3x4 off guardIt was an important wicket just when the opening stand had started to look steady engineering a partnership of 55 runs The secondwicket stand between Latham and Henry Nicolls 24 was of 49 runs helping the Kiwis reach 104 when Nicolls fellWith the wicket offering a lot of turn Jadeja made the most of it Changing his angle to outfox Nicolls who failed to come fully forward to cover the turn the leftarm tweaker got the outside edge of Nicolls bat with Rahane taking the catch at first slipRoss Taylor who is standing in for indisposed captain Kane Williamson lasted only 26 minutes in which the righthander scored just eight runs before falling to Ashwins guile dismissed leg before wicket Taylor played the wrong line leaving umpire Richard Kettleborough with an easy decision to make as the ball hit Taylors front padEarlier resuming at 227 for eight India were all out for 263 in their second inningsWriddhiman Saha who had run out of partners in the first innings after scoring 54 once again anchored the lower order remaining not out at 58 120 balls 6x4 his fourth Test half centuryThe two overnight batsmen Saha and Bhuvneshwar Kumar 23 51 balls 2x4 1x6 were involved in a 56run partnership that helped India cross the 250mark and set New Zealand a target which no team has ever achieved in the fourth innings at the famed groundThe stand was broken in the 10th over of the morning session when Bhuvneshwar misjudged the bounce of Neil Wagners delivery and offered an easy catch to short leg It was Wagners 99th wicket in 25 Tests