Murali Vijay (64 not out) scored his second 50 of the match while Cheteshwar Pujara (50 not out) also joined in as the duo took India to 159/1 at the end of Day three at Kanpur.
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From 238 for the loss of 5 wickets, they were bowled out for 262 runs as Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin shared 9 wickets among themselves.
Much was expected of the overnight pair of Tom Latham and Kane Williamson, who had batted with great nous against the spinners on Friday, but it took just five overs in the morning to break the partnership.
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There were a few hairy moments, bound to happen when you attack on a wearing Day 3 wicket, but for the most part, it was Rahul in control and in wonderful-to-watch attack mode.
Jadeja rips through lower order Jadeja removed Ronchi just before tea and then he came on to his own dismantling New Zealand’s lower-order. Ashwin privides the home team with their first wicket of the game, as he Latham (58) is out LBW.
Opener Lokesh Rahul (38) fell to Ish Sodhi just before tea, but Vijay and Pujara registered their second individual fifties of the match.
The first three overs after tea from Sodhi and Craig went for 30 runs and included seven boundaries, and by the time the New Zealand players were reaching for drinks 72 had been added in 15 overs at nearly five-an-over.
India only took one wicket on day two, but with the spinners getting the ball to spit and hiss with increasing frequency, it had seemed a matter of time before something gave way.
Luke Ronchi and Mitchell Santner averted that possibility, mixing enterprise with putting their heads down to build a 49-run stand. Ronchi was the more aggressive of the two, using his feet to the spinners and keeping his intent positive.
The spin twins continued to wreak havoc after the first session as Jadeja, who was denied a hat-trick, wiped off the opposition tail after taking three wickets in the 95th over of the innings.
Caught between going front and coming back, the ball zipped between Williamson’s bat and pad and smashed the top of middle stump. Williamson watched the shortish delivery, pitching outside the off-stump and made a decision to move onto his back foot to play it through covers. Ravindra Jadeja picked up another five-wicket haul in Tests whereas R Ashwin shone with 4 wickets to his name.
Ashwin and Jadeja had bowled testing 10 overs in tandem when India captain Virat Kohli brought part-timer Murali Vijay into the attack to bowl his off-breaks, replacing Jadeja.
However, the pressure, which was created by Ashwin and Jadeja got released.
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The second session began with a careful approach from BJ Watling (21) and Santner.
