Bangalore: Young Virat Kohli and skipper MS Dhoni held their nerve under pressure as India survived a few jitters before scripting a comfortable five-wicket win over New Zealand to complete a 2-0 whitewash, here on Monday.
Set a target of 261, the Indians were in a spot of bother at 166 for five at one stage with three wickets falling in quick succession before Kohli and Dhoni steered the team home with an entire day to spare.
Dhoni smashed a six off spinner Jeetan Patel to finish off the match in style and in the process became the most successful Indian captain by winning 14 Test matches at home, eclipsing Mohammed Azharuddin’s record of 13 wins.
New Zealand made an emphatic comeback in the final session by picking up wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina in quick succession, which jolted the Indian dressing room for a brief period.
Dhoni and Kohli, however, took the attack to the New Zealand, treating Patel and Tim Southee mercilessly.
The Indian pair particularly targetted Patel to unsettle him as he was getting some turn and bounce on the uneven fourth days’s wicket.
Earlier in the day, the Kiwi second innings folded after pacer Zaheer Khan claimed the wicket of Patel, who hammered two boundaries in the 16 runs scored on Monday in a bid to get some vital runs on the board for India to chase.
Ravichandran Ashwin was the star bowler for India, leading the attack by scalping five wickets for 69 runs. He was ably supported by Pragyan Ojha and Umesh Yadav, who both claimed two wickets each.
“Virat was superb with the bat. There are two ways to tackle the pressure. Either you fight through it or you just soak it, and I believe Virat really batted well,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“This pitch was a bit more challenging. I tried to alter the pace on the third day, it was a bit more docile. I enjoy bounce, that’s one of the important ingredients I require from a pitch,” Man-of-the-Series Ashwin said.
He was also appreciative of Pragyan Ojha who complimented him well through out the two Test matches.
The Kiwis will have been boosted by a better performance in this Test after their mediocre effort in Hyderabad, but captain Ross Taylor still hoped for more.
“We had our chances. The boys really showed great character to come back from a terrible Test in Hyderabad,” Taylor said.
Man-of-the-Match Kohli, who is in the form of his life admitted that it was indeed a “tricky situation.”
“It was a tricky situation when I went out to bat. Me and MS decided that we would target 10 runs at a time and it worked for us,” the Delhi lad stated. (PTI)