Mohammed Shami clean bowls Jimmy Neesham with a peach of a delivery

Indian team is currently playing a practice match against New Zealand XI in Hamilton. The visitors found themselves in hot water when they won the toss and elected to bat first. They lost three quick wickets with Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, two hopefuls of making it as an opener in the first Test at Wellington, falling for ducks.

But the Indian team pulled things back thanks to Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari. Pujara made a patient 93 off 211 balls, while Vihari retired hurt after making 101 off 182 balls with 2 sixes and 18 fours to his name, as India put up 263 on the board. Now, it was up to the Indian bowlers to get their team on the top and that’s what Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah did.

Mohammed Shami was on top of his game against New Zealand XI

The Bengal seamer was on top of his game as the New Zealand XI struggled to get going against him, Jasprit Bumrah, and Navdeep Saini going great guns on Saturday. While Saini and Bumrah picked up two wickets, Shami was the wrecker-in-chief for India with three scalps under his belt. The pick of Mohammad Shami’s brilliant spell was a delivery with which he got rid of all-rounder Jimmy Neesham.

As Neesham went for a full-fledged drive against Shami’s length delivery, the ball squeezed back in after pitching to take a small inside edge of Neesham’s willow before crashing on to the stumps. Neesham had scored 1 run and had to go back disappointed. It was a great display of swing and seam bowling by Indian pacer.

Here is the video:

Indian openers – Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw started on a positive note in the second innings. They played on the front foot and smashed the New Zealand XI bowlers at a strike rate of more than 100. Agarwal remained unbeaten for a 17-ball 23 and Shaw made 35* off 25 balls as India ended the Day 2 with 59/0 in 7 overs.