MUM 431/5 | Live Cricket Score, New Zealand vs Mumbai, Warm-up match, Day 2, Stumps

Hello and welcome to the live updates of the warm-up match between Mumbai Ranji team and New Zealand at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi.

New Zealand have started their tour preparations with a three-day game against Mumbai‘s Ranji team at Feroz Shah Kolta Stadium, Delhi. They were quite surprised by how the curator Amit Dutta used a green top on Kotla pitch as the Kiwis were expecting a green top. The Kiwis included three spinners in their squad— leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner and off-spinner Mark Craig. Batting first the visitors took to an aggressive approach as their batsman started scoring runs easily. Tom Latham and Kane Williamson scored their half-centuries in the early stage of the match and made sure that their next batsman came in and attacked.

It was not an ideal preparation but New Zealand made good use of their time in the middle against a mediocre Mumbai attack on day one of their only warm-up match ahead of the three-Test series against India. New Zealand lost their opener Martin Guptill early into the match. Guptill looked sturdy in his short stay as he scored 15 runs off 19 deliveries before edging the ball into wicket-keeper Ajinkya Tare’s gloves off Balwinder Sandhu’s bowling. But next came in captain Williamson and he along with other opener Latham made sure that they played responsible innings and that their team did not lose any further wickets.

They both made a stand of 85 runs for the second wicket before Williamson was removed by Balwinder Sandhu. All the next batsmen like Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling, Mitchell Santner, Mark Craig, Ish Sodhi got off to a great start but could not make it big as they got out trying to play big shots before New Zealand declared their first innings at 324 for seven with an hour left for stumps.

With the pitch having a thin grass cover, the ball did not spin much, allowing the visiting batsmen to bat freely but Balwinder Sandhu remained the most successful bowler for Mumbai as he finished with the figures of 11-5-21-2. The stand out bowler for Mumbai was Balwinder Sandhu Jr, who took two wickets with his gentle medium pace. The bowling otherwise was pedestrian, especially the spin trio of Vishal Dabholkar, Siddhesh Lad and Vijay Gohil, who hardly troubled the opposition batsmen.

Rohit Sharma is yet to bat and there will be lot of eyes on how he performs as he has been included in the Tests squad. He has not been consistent in the longer format of the game, so it will be very vital for him to  make sure that he scores some runs of his bat to bask in his form.

As about the game, a lot depends on how Mumbai team reacts against a good bowling from the visitors. Mumbai spinners were completely helpless on the day one as they hardly received any help from the wicket. It remains to be seen as to how the pitch will assist the New Zealand spinners if at all it does. Second day will be crucial for the teams as Mumbai batsman will have to display good batting effort if they want to give a tough fight to the uncanny opponents.

On the other hand, the visitors will try getting wickets early into the match as that will put a lot of pressure on Mumbai. Also the visitors would look to leave their domination on this match as this will in-turn give boost to their confidence for the upcoming Test series against India which starts from 22nd of this month.

The Kiwis wanted everyone to get accustomed to the pitch conditions at Feroz Shah Kotla. At the end of Day One the visitors have a lead of 295 runs over Mumbai‘s Ranji team. Mumbai lost their first wicket on the third ball of the innings. New Zealand strike bowler Trent Boult got the wicket of Jay Bista in the very first over putting pressure on Kaustubh Pawar and Armaan Jaffer. The green top seemed to trouble the batsmen with the new ball. However, the Kiwis scored at more than 4 runs per over, at times the run-rate was hovering over 5.

Tom Latham’s form is a big plus point for New Zealand going into the game. Latham retired after scoring 55 from 91 balls. Meanwhile, news broke out on Saturday early morning that New Zealand strike bowler Tim Southee has been ruled out of the Test series against India after injuring an ankle in training, New Zealand Cricket said Saturday. Matt Henry has been rushed into the squad as a replacement. Southee is to return home for rehabilitation and will return to India for the ODI leg of the tour beginning next month.

New Zealand will visit India for three Tests and five One-Day Internationals (ODIs). New Zealand will be led by their Kane Williamson. This is Williamson’s second series as Test captain as he led the side in a victorious series against Zimbabwe at their home earlier. With Southee being ruled out, it will be a big loss for New Zealand against the already favourites India. Henry, with relatively much less experience, will have to take up a huge responsibility to step in to Southee’s shoes.

Henry has represented New Zealand  in four Tests so far, scalping 10 wickets in total. The bowler remained successful on his debut Test series in England but could not follow it up as he went wicket-less in the following Trans-Tasman. The first Test will be played in Kanpur on September 22.

Squads:

New Zealand: Kane Williamson(c), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Mark Craig, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, BJ Watling(wk), James Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner

Mumbai: Aditya Tare(c & wk), Armaan Jaffer, Jay Gokul Bista, Vishal Dabholkar, Tushar Deshpande, Royston Dias, Siddhesh Lad, Kaustubh Pawar, Balwinder Sandhu, Sufiyan Shaikh, Rohit Sharma, Harshal Soni, Suryakumar Yadav, Vijay Gohil, Parikshit Valsangkar