NZ lowest score in Test cricket: What is the lowest Test score in India?

NZ lowest score in Test: New Zealand are on the verge of registering one of their lowest Test scores in the ongoing Test match.

The first 100 balls of New Zealand’s first innings of the second Test of their ongoing tour of India in Mumbai have seen them getting reduced to 38/6 in what has been a shambolic batting performance on a Day 2 pitch.

In what is a highly contrasting batting effort for a team which had put on display a gritty show to draw the first Test in Kanpur on a Day 5 pitch, New Zealand lost their first wicket in the fourth over when Will Young (4) edged a Mohammed Siraj delivery to India captain Virat Kohli in the slips.

Siraj, who wasn’t picked ahead of Ishant Sharma in the last match, made some statement by also sending back Tom Latham (10) and Ross Taylor (1). Taylor’s dismissal in the sixth over, particularly, happened off a jaffa of a delivery.

Kohli, who was quick to introduce spinners into the attack in the second session itself, did effective bowling changes as New Zealand lost three more wickets before the tea break. With wicket-keeper batter Tom Blundell and fast bowler Kyle Jamieson batting in the middle, New Zealand needed 87 more runs to avoid the follow-on at tea.

NZ lowest score in Test cricket

New Zealand, whose lowest score (26) in a Test innings had come way back in 1955, managed to break an unwanted record without much discomfort at the Wankhede Stadium today.

This is a sporting deck laid out by the curator. The Kiwis have been poor and India brilliant.

— Bharath Ramaraj (@Fancricket12) December 4, 2021

It is worth mentioning that the visitors have even managed to score more than their five-lowest scores in a Test innings. The last time when New Zealand were bowled out for less than 100 in a Test innings was against Pakistan in Dubai three years ago when they had scored 90 in 35.3 overs.

As far as the lowest score in a Test innings in India is concerned, the hosts themselves have this unwanted record to their name when they had been bundled out for 75 in 30.5 overs against West Indies in 1987.

England, who had traveled to India for a multi-format tour earlier this year, have the fourth-lowest score in a Test innings in India as they were bowled out for 81 in 30.4 overs in Ahmedabad.

New Zealand’s lowest Test score in an innings in India is 124 in 65.3 overs in Hyderabad in 1988. In what was the third Test of the series, New Zealand had registered a victory (last Test victory in India) in the second one at Wankhede Stadium.

UPDATE: New Zealand have been bowled out for 62 in 28.1 overs today. This has not just become their lowest-ever Test score in India but is also the lowest-ever Test score by any team in an Indian Test.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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