India v New Zealand, 1st Test, Kanpur, Day 1 - Neil Wagner and Mitchell Santner's well-planned spell

The first session belonged to India and they were in a commendable position when Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay were batting together. Both of them were cautious and technically near perfect against the New Zealand bowlers. Kane Williamson badly needed a breakthrough to come back into the game.

Kane engaged Neil Wagner and Mitchell Santnerinto the attack from the 42 over.

Santner’s deliveries were not testing enough, while Wagner breathe hostility – reversed the ball and banged in short.

What Santner’s plan was to instill a pesudo-confidence in Pujara and Vijay by bowling some mediocre balls so that, the all-of-a-suddenly-bowled good balls can fetch wickets. It was not about drying up the runs, but creating a false sense of confidence to script a breakthrough.

From over 42 to 48, Pujara and Vijay hardly felt the heat and India’s train was traveling smoothly. In the third ball of the 49^th over, Pujara seemed to have fallen into the trap of Santner. In the last three overs, Santer’s line of attack was either wide-of-off or swaying down the leg. The Indian batsmen fetched runs, comfortably while the occasional good balls were countered with ease.

The first ball of the 49^th over was a mediocre one, while the second was a good one and the third another mediocre. The fourth one was pushed into middle-and-leg. You cannot use the bat straight in such cases, but use the wrist to send it to the onside and in fact, Pujara was doing such against Santner in the previous overs.

But, maneuvering the strike and scoring freely against Santner gave rise to pseudo-confidence and the bat came straight. New Zealand got the breakthrough.

Entered Virat. Santner delivered nothing special to Virat who cracked a boundary and took a single to face Wagner in the next over. Virat was confident and sent a Wagner short-pitched stuff to the boundary.

Immediately, Wagner had put the slip fielders wide and an orthodox gully and went over the wicket to bowl.

Surely, it was a trap. Wide slip and gully makes a batsman think, the pace bowler will deliver the ball outside off from back of a length, but Wagner delivered another shortish one, Virat pulled it straight into the throat of the long leg fielder.

Santner built the confidence in Virat, Wagner added more fuel to it and then made him think like Wagner by maneuvering the field. The plan worked.

Kane’s ploy to engage Santner and Wagner paid rich dividends. The Indian batting lost their rhythm and at the fag end of day 1, Trent Boult’s nippy-spell with the new ball set jitters in the lower order of Indian batting line-up.  

Thank You

Faisal Caesar