6 New Zealand has become the sixth visiting team to beat India in a bilateral series in India. This is New Zealand’s 13th visit to India. In the first 12 tours, New Zealand had won only two Tests in India, the last of which was in November 1988.
Series Wins in India
Team Series Played Series Wins Last Win
England 17 5 2012/13
West Indies 12 5 1983/84
Australia 15 4 2004/05
Pakistan 8 1 1986/87
South Africa 7 1 1999/00
New Zealand 13 1 2024/25
Before this defeat, India have won 18 consecutive series. Their last defeat at home came in 2012/13, when England won the four-Test series 2-1. India’s 18 bilateral series wins (including one Test) is the longest winning streak by a team at home, while Australia have won ten series in two separate periods (1994/95 to 2000/01 and 2004 to 2008/09). The last time India lost the first two Tests at home was against South Africa in 1999/00.
3This was only the third instance of India losing three or more Tests in a calendar year at home. They had lost four in 1969 (three against Australia and one against New Zealand) and three in 1983 (three against West Indies). Before losing 0-2 to New Zealand, India lost to England in Hyderabad earlier this year.
Rohit Sharma has lost 4 in 15 Tests at home as captain – the joint second most for an Indian captain. MAK Pataudi tops the list with nine defeats, while Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin are second with four defeats each in 20 Tests.
Mitchell Santner also did wonders
Santner’s 13/157 (7/53 and 6/104) is the third-best match performance by a New Zealand bowler, behind Richard Hadlee’s 15/123 against Australia at the Gabba in 1985 and Ajaz Patel’s 14/224 at the Wankhede Stadium three years ago.
Best match figures for New Zealand
Venue Season Figures by bowler against
Richard Hadlee 15/123 Australia Brisbane 1985/86
Ajaz Patel 14/225 India Mumbai World Cup 2021/22
Mitchell Santner 13/157 India Pune 2024/25
Daniel Vettori 12/149 Australia Auckland 1999/00
Daniel Vettori 12/179 BAN Chittagong 2004/05
Richard Hadlee 11/58 India Wellington 1975/76
3 Santner becomes only the third bowler to take 13 or more wickets in Tests against India, earlier Ajaz Patel took 14/224 in 2021 and Ian Botham took 13/106 in 1980, both matches played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai 2 Santner became the second New Zealand spinner to take five wickets in both innings of a Test. Daniel Vettori had done it twice before him: 5/62 and 7/87 against Australia in Auckland in 2000 and 6/70 and 6/100 against Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2004.
Spinners’ Day
The 37 wickets taken by spinners in this Test – the joint most in any match played on Indian soil. 37 wickets fell in the match between the same two teams in Nagpur in 1969, which incidentally was New Zealand’s first Test win in India. There have been only two other Test matches in which spinners have taken more wickets – 38 each in the Test between Sri Lanka and England in Pallekele in 2018 and then in the Test between Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Chittagong in 2019.
8 This was only the eighth instance of two spinners taking 10 wickets in a Test – Santner with 13/157 and Washington Sundar with 11/115. The last such instance was in Galle in 2008, when Ajantha Mendis took 10/209 and Harbhajan Singh took 10/153. Incidentally, neither Santner nor Sundar had taken a five-wicket haul in Tests before this game.
The 11/115 by Washington is the second-best match stats for India in a Test match in which India lost. The only better figures belonged to Javagal Srinath, who took 13/132 against Pakistan in an Asian Test Championship game at Eden Gardens in 1999.
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 1056 runs are the most runs made by a batsman in a calendar year in India, surpassing Gundappa Viswanath’s 1047 runs in 1979. Jaiswal also became the sixth batsman overall and third Indian after Viswanath and Sunil Gavaskar (both in 1979) to score 1000+ runs in a calendar year on home grounds.
