Ravindra Jadeja named Man of the Match as India beat New Zealand in 1st Test at Kanpur

India won its historic 500th Test in Kanpur as they bundled out New Zealand for 236 runs on 26 September. Ravindra Jadeja was awarded the Man of the Match.

Mitchell Santner and Luke Ronchi held the fort for New Zealand at the start of Day 5, but it was to be only till the drinks break as Ravindra Jadeja broke the resilient partnership of 120 runs.

Ronchi appeared to be a tad bit aggressive after completing his half-century but was caught by Ravichandran Ashwin while aiming for a big shot off Jadeja.

The drinks break appeared to have distracted the set batsman on the pitch, resulting in the fall of wicket.

BJ Watling and Mitchell Santner fought valiantly against the Indian spinners, Ashwin and Jadeja. Virat Kohli introduced a bowling change by bringing back the pair of Umesh Yadav and Muhammed Shami. With his reverse swings, Shami bagged two wickets for India in quick succession but missed out on a hattrick.

It was a spinners show for most of the match as Ashwin and Jadeja spun the ball back and forth, keeping the batsman on the feet throughout.

Virat Kohli made sure that his bowling changes did not allow the batsmen to settle down at any point of the game. Clever seam bowling from Shami got him the wickets and left the Kiwis unbalanced for the rest of the match.

After lunch, the Kiwis came back with an aggressive attitude and hit boundaries off Ashwin and Jadeja. However, they toppled after Santner (71) fell victim to Ashwin. New Zealand could not hold on their own for long after lunch as Aswhin picked his victim one by one to bring India closer to a win.

The match saw Ashwin complete his 19th five-wicket haul against New Zealand. Jadeja and Shami complemented Ashwin with the ball, which helped India defeat New Zealand by 197 runs.