Wellington, Feb 23 (IANS) Debutant Kyle Jamieson ensured that his debut was not only made memorable with the ball. Playing in place of New Zealand’s star paceman Neil Wagner, the towering cricketer also showed he can bat and gave the selectors more reason to consider him as a serious talent for the future.
The 25-year old Aucklander, who took four wickets in the first innings, further turned heads with his knock of 44 from 45 balls which included four massive sixes and a four to help New Zealand take a 183-run lead which at one point looked tough.
Jamieson added 71 runs for the eighth wicket with Colin de Grandhomme (43 off 74 balls) in under 15 overs after the hosts were 225/7 at one stage with Jasprit Bumrah and Ishant Sharma removing overnight batter BJ Watling and Tim Southee early.
Jamieson took a liking to Ravichandran Ashwin, who took two wickets but copped a lot of stick from the tail-enders including Trent Boult casting doubts on whether he should have been played at all ahead of Ravindra Jadeja who is more than handy with the bat which India needed going by their first essay performance.
The visitors were shot out for 165.
On Sunday, New Zealand were bowled out for 348 but Ashwin leaked important runs in the end as the Kiwis added 132 runs for the last three wickets.
Ashwin conceded a total of 99 runs, the highest among India’s four bowlers used.
India skipper Virat Kohli brought Ashwin four overs after the new ball was taken, in the 85th, but the move did not work as the experienced campaigner was taken for runs.
On a wicket which has little assistance for spin, it also came to mind whether gun-quick Navdeep Saini could have been played to add more teeth to India’s bowling battery.
–IANS
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