{"id":87718,"date":"2021-06-19T18:41:20","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T18:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=87718"},"modified":"2021-06-19T18:56:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T18:56:14","slug":"kohli-keeps-new-zealand-at-bay-in-world-test-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=87718","title":{"rendered":"Kohli keeps New Zealand at bay in World Test final"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SOUTHAMPTON: India captain Virat Kohli held firm in the face of accurate New Zealand pace bowling as the inaugural World Test Championship final at Southampton eventually got going on Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Friday’s first day was washed out without a ball bowled, India were 146-3 when the third of the day’s stoppages for bad light led to an early close even though the floodlights were on full beam.<\/p>\n

Kohli was 44 not out, with the star batsman having hit just one boundary in 124 balls faced.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ajinkya Rahane was 29 not out after adding an unbroken 58 for the fourth wicket with Kohli.<\/p>\n

Towering quick Kyle Jamieson ended the day with remarkable figures of 1-14 in 14 overs.<\/p>\n

“It’s probably pretty even at the moment,” Jamieson told reporters after stumps. “It was a good day of Test cricket. They (India) put away the bad balls really well.”<\/p>\n

India batting coach Vikram Rathour added: “Anything more than 250 plus would be a reasonable score under the conditions.”<\/p>\n

Only 64.4 overs out of 180 scheduled for the first two days have so far been bowled.<\/p>\n

But under a special provision for this final, match referee Chris Broad can add an extra day onto the standard maximum five for a men’s Test if he decides an extension is needed to compensate for time lost to bad weather earlier in the game.<\/p>\n

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss in overcast conditions that favoured his five-man pace attack.<\/p>\n

But Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill batted impressively in an opening stand of 62.<\/p>\n

India, however, lost three wickets either side of lunch to be 88-3.<\/p>\n

Their position might have been worse had Kohli been given out caught behind down the legside off left-arm quick Trent Boult on 17.<\/p>\n

But amid some on-field confusion, an umpire review led to replays that indicated Kohli had not hit the ball.<\/p>\n

India’s openers made a fine start amid New Zealand’s swing and seam.<\/p>\n

Rohit confidently clipped the first ball of the match, from Tim Southee, off his pads for three while Gill showed his class by driving Jamieson down the ground for four.<\/p>\n

– Stylish Rohit –<\/h2>\n

Rohit brought up the 50 partnership with a stylish cover-driven four off all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme.<\/p>\n

The openers’ form was all the more impressive given this was India’s first Test since March whereas only last week New Zealand completed a 1-0 series win over England with an eight-wicket victory at Edgbaston.<\/p>\n

But Rohit’s 68-ball innings, featuring six fours, ended when he edged a late-swinging delivery from Jamieson to third slip where Southee held an excellent low catch, diving to his right.<\/p>\n

Gill followed soon afterwards for 28, edging aggressive left-armer Neil Wagner to BJ Watling in what the New Zealand wicketkeeper has said will be his last match before retirement.<\/p>\n

It took Cheteshwar Pujara 51 minutes and 36 balls to get off the mark, a cut four off medium-pacer de Grandhomme greeted by huge cheers from India fans in the crowd.<\/p>\n

But, as happened several times during India’s come-from-behind series win in Australia this year, Pujara was hit on the helmet by a bouncer after missing a pull off Wagner.<\/p>\n

Pujara’s painstaking eight off 54 balls ended when he was lbw to a Boult inswinger that cut back sharply off the pitch.<\/p>\n

This match, the culmination of two years of series between the leading Test nations, is worth $1.6 million to the winners and $800,000 to the runners-up.<\/p>\n

The India team wore black armbands Saturday as a mark of respect for Milkha Singh following the national track athletics legend’s death from Covid-19 at the age of 91.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOUTHAMPTON: India captain Virat Kohli held firm in the face of accurate New Zealand pace bowling as the inaugural World Test Championship final at Southampton […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87718"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87720,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87718\/revisions\/87720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}