NZ 235 all out | Live Cricket Score, New Zealand vs Mumbai, Warm-up match, Day 3, match drawn

Hello and welcome to the live updates of the warm-up game between Mumbai Ranji Team and new Zealand at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground in 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. Mumbai got off to an excellent batting as they finished the day at 431 for the loss of 4 wickets.

Starting the day from 29 for the loss of 1 wicket, Mumbai team went on to score mammoth total of 431. Jay Gokul Bista was the batsman who got dismissed at the end of day one but since the start of day two, it was all about Mumbai batsmen. Kaustubh Pawar and Armaan Jaffer took on the New Zealand bowling as they scored rums at ease. There was hardly any room of happiness for the visitors. They both batted brilliantly as they went to put a partnership of 107 runs for the second wicket before Jaffer departed for 69. Rohit Sharma disappointed yet once again as he managed to score only 18 off 40 deliveries. Sharma  had a golden chance to bask in his form just before the Test series were to begin. Also on a pitch where other batsman were scoring runs very easily, much was expected from Sharma too. But his got out cheaply.

Next batsman Suryakumar Yadav who came in after the dismissal of Rohit Sharma blasted off since the very first ball. Yadav went after the visitors bowling as he went onto score his century off just 86 balls. His knock was one of the best knocks and at a time when the team needed someone to stay at the crease. Yadav who scored 103 had 9 boundaries and 8 sixes in his innings which was very much explaining how much aggressive he had been towards the New Zealand bowlers.

After Yadav got out to Santner as straight-on substitute fielder Ronchi took his catch, skipper Aditya Tare and Siddhesh Lad took guard at the crease. Lad played an unreal innings, he struck 7 humongous sixes and 7 fours in his 62-ball-86. He scored at a strike rate over 138. Tare started off cautiously but soon came into the groove. He too scored a half-century. He faced 76 balls and scored 53 runs from it. It was a run-fest if Day Two’s play is to be concluded. However, not giving Trent Boult and Neil Wagner the new ball in the last session seemed a little abrupt. Wagner created problems for Pawar trying to bowl him short balls, keeping him guessing. Even Boult bowled bouncers through his spell.

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.

New Zealand players got the taste of their own medicine when Mumbai batsmen hammered their bowlers for fours and sixes all over the ground. At one point it seemed like Kiwi bowlers were not even trying too hard to take wickets, trying to roll up a few tricks under their sleeve for the first Test to be played at Kanpur on September 22. Day two saw a full 90-over game and 402 runs being scored till umpire’s called it a day. It was satisfying to watch Mumbai batsmen timing the ball to perfection and giving the visitors a run for their money. Second day’s play saw two centurions— Yadav and Pawar. However, their batting approach was completely different. Pawar was batting cautiously whereas Yadav went on for a brutal onslaught scoring at a strike-rate of 120 (approximately).

However, the main highlight of the day was Sharma coming out to bat. All eyes were on the Hitman of India cricket who needed to put his claim forward to get selected in the team for the Kanpur Test. But, Sharma could not live up to the expectations of fans coming to watch him change the game in a single session as suggested by Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Sharma was lured into stepping down the track to hit Sodhi but got outsmarted as he was stumped by wicketkeeper BJ Watling. Everyone was thought when Armaan Jaffer came out to bat that the ‘best is yet to come’ but it did not go that way.

Pawar retired after scoring his century. He held onto one end and let other batsmen attack. However, he did take a slightly attacking approach watching Yadav hit maximum at the other end. Sodhi’s happiness lasted only in the first session as he got picked up for far too many runs in the rest of the sessions.

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