IND vs NZ: Kiwi pacers are giving Virat Kohli a nightmare

New Zealand's Colin de Grandhomme (left) celebrates after dismissing Indiau00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u0099s Virat Kohli on Day Two of the second Test at Hagley Oval in Christchurch yesterday. Pic/ PTI

What do New Zealand pacers Kyle Jamieson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, and Colin de Grandhomme have in common? All have had the satisfaction of dismissing Virat Kohli in this Test series.

The Indian captain extended his horror run on Day Two of the second Test here at the Hagley Oval and will end the series with a feeble-looking 38 runs. His average of 9.50 for the series is a shade better than the 9.20 he produced in the three-Test home series against Australia in 2016-17. And it's staggering to see Mohammed Shami scoring more runs (39) than the India skipper in the series.

"He [Kohli] is one of the best players in the world…no doubt about that," Trent Boult remarked.

"Obviously, he is a big player for them and we just tried to put enough pressure on him, keep him quiet and soak up those boundary balls. It was nice to see him make a few errors. We were lucky to get two that lined up and hit him on the pads nicely and it was a good feeling to see the back of him," added Boult.

India squandered the chance of a significant lead as Kyle Jamieson (49) continued to be the scourge of the visitors with both bat and ball. But Jasprit Bumrah (3-62), Mohammed Shami (4-81) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-22) did well to dismiss the Kiwis for 235, far less than the hosts would settle for. But the Indian batsmen couldn't thrive on the fine work by the bowling unit and ended the day with 90 for six.

"See, we don't play the blame game. In our (team) culture, we don't look at blaming anyone. Some days if, as a bowling unit, we don't pick up wickets then that doesn't give the batsmenliberty to take our case, isn't it?, said Bumrah after the day on which 16 wickets fell.

"We, as a team, want to push hard and do well but the situation is what it is. We have two batsmen left and we would look to push tomorrow as well. We can try and work hard, score as many runs as we can and we'll see how it goes," said Bumrah, who is playing his first series against New Zealand.

9.5
Virat Kohli's average in the NZ Test series

Brief scores
India 242 & 90-6 (C Pujara 24, H Vihari 5', R Pant 1'; T Boult 3-12) v New Zealand 235 (T Latham 52, K Jamieson 49; M Shami 4-81, J Bumrah 3-62, R Jadeja 2-22)

Live on tv Today
NZ v India, Day Three: Star Sports 1, SS 1 Hindi & HD, 04:00 onwards

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates