Mohammed Siraj was sent in as a nightwatchman on day one of the third India-New Zealand Test, only to burn a crucial review and lose his wicket first ball.
India bowled New Zealand out for 235 after losing the toss on a Wankhede wicket that had turn and bounce. In response, New Zealand got the early wicket of Rohit Sharma for 18 in the seventh over, before the young duo of Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal took the attack to the New Zealand spinners.
Gill and Jaiswal added 53 for the second wicket 63 balls when Jaiswal was bowled trying to reverse sweep an Ajaz Patel delivery from around the wicket. With under 15 minutes to go before stumps, the Indian management decided to send in Mohammed Siraj as the nightwatch, covering for Virat Kohli.
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What followed was a 10-minute period of absolute chaos.
Siraj was first undone by a beautiful delivery by Patel that drifted in, pitched on leg, turned away and caught his back leg. The on-field umpire took no time in raising his finger, but Siraj went for the review at the last second, only for replays to show three reds and the ball hitting the top of off stump. The nightwatchman experiment failed and it took an important review with it, eventually forcing Kohli to come out. That, however, was not all.
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Kohli negotiated the hat-trick ball by Patel safely, before hitting a boundary off Rachin Ravindra to get off the mark in the next over. Looking confident at the crease, he then took for a suicidal single to mid-on facing just his sixth delivery. Matt Henry hit the bullseye and that was that for Kohli, who was well short of his crease despite a full-length dive, dismissed for four.
In a matter of less than ten minutes, India went from a commanding position of 78-1 to 84-4. Rishabh Pant faced the last ball of the day and took a single as India finished the day on 86-4.
