A few minutes past 1 PM on a hot Sunday afternoon, the sparse partisan crowd at the Wankhede stadium witnessed unprecedented scenes. Ajaz Patel knocked back Washington Sundar’s stumps, prompting his teammates to converge on him within seconds to celebrate the kind of series win New Zealand had never experienced before. The moment capped off a surreal [nearly] three weeks for the visiting side, that became the first to inflict a 3-0 whitewash on India in their own den.
“I’m lost for words a little bit in terms of what’s happened over the last three days, but also the last sort of three weeks,” New Zealand captain Tom Latham said. “I guess if you asked me at the start of the tour whether I would have liked to be in this position… to be here now and play the cricket that we’ve played is really special and I’m really proud of the group.”
New Zealand arrived in India with a bag of red flags. Their senior-most batter Kane Williamson was out for the first – and eventually all three – Tests due to an injury and Tim Southee had just relinquished captaincy in the aftermath of Test series humbling in Sri Lanka, including an innings where they were bundled out for 88. As far as initiations go, Latham couldn’t have stepped in as permanent skipper of the side in a tougher tour on paper. But, with a collective effort, his team ripped up all the conventional wisdom that came with being a touring side in India in some style.
“I guess from my point of view, leading this group… It’s always a really proud moment to lead New Zealand and I guess to come here and be my first time as full-time captain and to be in this position is really special,” Latham said.
“But for me it’s not about me, it’s about the team and yeah the team has done the job. At the end of the day, everyone’s chipped in when they need it and that’s the beauty of a team sport. It’s not going to be everyone’s day on particular days but guys stand up when they need to. And guys stood up at certain times throughout this whole series which I’m really proud of,” he added.
New Zealand’s stronghold in the series began as early as the first morning, when the grey overheads and India’s misstep at the toss allowed them to make a statement start. The quicks made most of the assistance to bundle out the home side for 46, after which India played catch-up all through.
“I think that wicket in Bangalore was a pretty tricky one and I think our seamers did a fantastic job in terms of what we were able to achieve there and we certainly knew in these conditions naturally, the way that India play, they are quite aggressive and tend to take the game on a little bit more and that’s something we spoke about and something that we tried to plan for,” Latham opined.
New Zealand bowlers began what was the last day of the series exactly like they did the first – by rattling India’s top-order quickly. In chase of 147, the home side had fallen to 29/5. Latham talked up his team’s ability to have runs on the board throughout the series, and yet remained wary of the threat that Rishabh Pant brought in such situations.
“Even today, you know with Rishabh [Pant] still there, I certainly didn’t believe that the game was over and you know they have match winners throughout their side and they’ve been successful playing the way that they’ve been playing for a long period of time,” Latham said.
“I think we managed to fall on the right side of a couple of tosses and I guess in doing that we managed to put runs on the board in the last couple of games and I guess when you’re chasing scores and you know from our point of view runs on the board are really important and some of these pitches that we’ve played on have been really hard.
“They certainly haven’t got easier from a batting point of view, so we knew today India were going to come hard. They did that in Pune and they did that again today. And we obviously managed to get the results which was really nice,” Latham added.
One of the big reasons for Latham’s team pulling off the unthinkable with a 3-0 win has been their determination to not take their feet off the pedal, even after a winning start to the series. Going on to tame a wounded Indian side in Pune and then finishing off the job in Mumbai shortly after has left Latham with a series win he’ll ‘never forget’.
“Pretty happy we got the job done. It’s been a massive achievement and I think after the first one it was obviously pretty special the second one – to win a series you know was even more special. And we spoke about coming here and trying to adapt as much as we can and I guess to be in this position [3-0], it’s certainly a series that I’ll never forget.
“We’ll obviously share that, and we’ll celebrate as a group together tonight and the next couple of days before we head home, but yeah it’s certainly been an amazing series to be a part of. I think it will sink in a little bit more when we get home and once the dust settles, but yeah it’s been a fantastic achievement,” he said.
