Washington Sundar picked up where he left off in Pune and picked up two crucial wickets for India against New Zealand in the third and final Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday. Sundar dismissed the in-form Tom Latham and Rachin Ravindra with identical dream throws, came around the wicket and overwhelmed the two New Zealand batters, comprehensively beating their defense. As expected, Sundar had every right to be enlivened after his first wicket – he went out jubilant, but no one knows why Sarfaraz Khan got carried away with it.

Sundar, who had taken 11 wickets from a match, swung into action and picked two of the three New Zealand wickets that fell. After Akash Deep gave India their first breakthrough in the form of Devon Conway, Sundar got the better of Latham and Rachin. More importantly, it is the nature of these layoffs that matters. Latham charged forward in defense but was beaten by the crack. The ball bounced just outside the field, kept its line and crashed onto the stumps. Four overs later, Ctrl C, Ctrl V.

What was interesting, however, was Sarfaraz’s reaction after Ravindra was fired. Sarfaraz stood at short leg and kicked Ravindra in the face to celebrate the wicket. This was not the only time that Sarfaraz’s tactics were questionable. A few overs later, the Indian youngster’s constant chirping caused Daryl Mitchell to become annoyed, requiring captain Rohit Sharma to intervene.

How the game has developed so far

India started the Mumbai Test well. To avoid a 0-3 scoreline, which if achieved would mean India’s first clean sweep in a home Test series since 2000, India put New Zealand at 92/3. After Latham won the toss and elected to bat, Akash Deep wasted no time in locking Conway out lbw to give India an early wicket. Latham and Will Young added 44 runs for the second wicket before Sundar started doing his thing.

India made a change to their starting XI, bringing back Mohammed Siraj in place of the ill Jasprit Bumrah. The Indian pacer, who flew home to Ahmedabad with India because he was not feeling well, is yet to recover from a “viral illness”, BCCI revealed soon after the toss. The news comes a day after Bumrah became Mumbai Indians’ most expensive signing among all five players. Siraj and Akash Deep played a limited role as the pitch had already started turning and Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin bowled 17 overs together.