New Zealand completed a landmark first Test win in India for 36 years on Sunday (October 20) in Bengaluru. Their previous victory was in 1988, in a match dominated by New Zealand’s greatest-ever servant.
Having not toured India for 12 years, New Zealand arrived in the subcontinent in 1988 looking to recreate their Nagpur demolition almost two decades before - at that point their only Test win in India. The first match of that series, however, again in Bengaluru, drove home the scale of the challenge that faced them.
New Zealand were bowled out for sub-200 in both innings of that game, ripped out by India’s formidable spin attack, and lost by 172 runs. Their own premier spinner, John Bracewell, failed to take a single wicket, highlighting the difference between the two teams in completely alien conditions to most of the Black Cap side.
The one shining moment of light in that Test was Richard Hadlee, aged 37 and back for a second tour of India after a respectable outing in 1976, three years into his career. It took just three overs of the opening Test for Hadlee to find Arun Lal’s edge, and go where no bowler had ever gone before with a record 374th Test wicket.
Hadlee went on to produce some magic in that match, taking five-for in the first innings. But that was only a precursor to one of his finest outings next time out in Mumbai where, not unlike in 2024, it was relentless pressure from New Zealand’s seam attack that masterminded a famous win.
New Zealand registered their first Test win in India since 1988 with an impressive win in Bengaluru 👏
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) October 20, 2024
Scorecard ➡️ https://t.co/R1aQWfV9XT pic.twitter.com/XMnLaWlT20
Hadlee took 10-88 across the game, the last of his nine 10 wickets hauls over his career - a number only bettered by Shane Warne (10) and Muttiah Muralidaran (22). The six-for Hadlee took in India’s first innings ensured the match stayed even after New Zealand elected to bat and were bowled out for 236. They wouldn’t have reached that total without Bracewell, who made up for his ineffectiveness with the ball in Bengaluru with a half-century from No.9 in Mumbai. It was New Zealand’s highest score of the innings, after Bracewell had come in at 141-7.
India had been cruising on 134-2 before Hadlee had a belligerent Kris Srikkanth caught behind on 94 with a crafty leg-cutter. He bowled out his counterpart Kapil Dev cheaply and mopped up the lower-order in a hurry to end with 6-49 and grant his side two runs of breathing space.
Half-centuries for Andrew Jones and Ian Smith in New Zealand’s second innings, and 32 for Bracewell at No.10 were each key to setting up a hefty target of 282. Hadlee and Bracewell would make light work of India in tandem, Dev’s brief flurry of boundaries the only real resistance. The pair finished with 4-39 and 6-51 respectively and a 136-run victory was secured, their first in India since 1969.
The result was a bolt from the blue - a fact backed up by the Black Caps slumping to a 2-1 series defeat in the next game at Hyderabad. That win in 1988 was the final flourish abroad for a talented and determined side, many of them reaching the autumn years of their careers and retiring. But, that unlikely victory at the Wankhede capped off a string of landmark achievements for one of New Zealand’s most memorable sides, following on from a series-win in England in 1986 and toppling Australia at the Gabba the year before - a feat they have yet to repeat.
Among Test pacers, Hadlee’s match-winning haul is untouched in the four decades since, Dale Steyn’s 10-108 at Nagpur in 2010 the only bowling analysis that comes close in India. Staggeringly, his bowling average of 21.58 on the subcontinent is nearly a run better than the average he achieved across his career. Perhaps the Queen was paying attention to these unscalable heights he had attained - it was little over a year later that his knighthood arrived.
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