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.

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.