New Delhi: As India struggled against the cobweb spun by the New Zealand bowlers, especially Mitchell Santner, young Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal kept his chin up to move the scoreboard. In the end, Jaiswal’s valiant innings did not turn out to be fruitful as India lost the match by 113 runs.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the young left-hander had set the perfect platform for the entire team to capitalise on. However, the men in Blue succumbed to the pressure and suffered a mini-collapse. Coming to Jaiswal’s innings, the left-hand batsman slammed 77 runs in just 65 balls, lacing his innings with nine boundaries and three sixes. During the innings, he became the first-ever Indian to notch up a special record.
Jaiswal became the first-ever Indian batter to hit 30 Test sixes in a single calendar year in the 92-year history of Indian Test cricket, having done so in 2024. The year has turned out to be a dream one for Jaiswal, as he has slammed over 1,000 Test runs.
Top 5 run-getters in test cricket
| Cricketer | Matches | Runs | 100 | 50 | HS | Avg |
| Joe Root | 14 | 1310 | 5 | 4 | 262 | 59.54 |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | 10 | 1007 | 2 | 6 | 214 | 59.23 |
| Ben Duckett | 14 | 969 | 2 | 5 | 153 | 38.76 |
| Kamindu Mendis | 7 | 943 | 5 | 3 | 182 | 94.30 |
| Rachin Ravindra | 8 | 846 | 2 | 4 | 240 | 56.40 |
What happened on Day 3?
India failed to capitalise on the platform set by Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal as the batting fell like a house of cards. The men in blue lost seven wickets in the space of only 118 runs after Jaiswal’s dismissal.
The star of the show was Mitchell Santner who claimed 6 wickets and completed his first 10-wicket haul in a test match. Santner finished the game with career-best Test match figures of 13/157 and deservingly earned the player of the match trophy.
For any visiting team, to win a Test series in India is a dream, and New Zealand have played really well to make it happen.
Such results can only be achieved with good, all-round team efforts.
Special mention to Santner for his standout performance, picking up 13 wickets.… pic.twitter.com/YLqHfbQeJU
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) October 26, 2024
From the viewpoint of the Indians, nothing positive could be drawn out of the game. Most of the batsmen barring Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja failed to even cross the 20-run mark. Nevertheless, despite the crushing defeat India remains on top of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle table.