8 Wickets India lost after lunch in the first day’s play; they made 186 runs from 59 overs in two sessions after lunch. Cheteshwara Pujara (62) and Murali vijay (65) made their fifties and looked strong in the beginning but after a soft dismissal of Pujara helped New Zealand to come strong and bowlers made their mark for rest of the day.
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Rahul, however, continued to target Boult, hitting a couple of consecutive boundaries off the pacer in the seventh over.
It certainly didn’t present a potentially small target to chase for a first innings lead, given the quality of India’s spinners and a Green Park Stadium surface that will only get harder to bat on.
With India claiming to be in good position after the first day’s play in the opening Test, New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner reckoned that his side was not in a bad position either, considering the kind of start the home team got, in Kanpur on Thursday.
Rahul’s short innings, off 39 balls, was a lively one with four boundaries and a six. And even then the Kiwi run-rate was good having scored 50 runs in the 15th over itself. The right-hander looking to chip the ball straight down the ground ended up hitting it towards the bowler.Pujara’s fall of wicket brought an end to 112-run partnership between him and Vijay.
India’s spin king Ravichandran Ashwin is in form, picking up 17 wickets in the Caribbean, while batsmen Lokesh Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane have also been in good knick.
The rest of the Kiwi bowlers toiled away without reward under hot and humid conditions.
Boult outfoxed Vijay in the very first over after lunch with a cross-seam short pitched delivery.
“The more you’re on the wicket, the more you get used to it”.
Two balls later, he tried the same shot, but this time Wagner had switched from left-arm around to left-arm over.
Wagner kicked that door open when he swapped over the wicket to an attack-minded Kohli and induced a top-edge to long leg, and from there the day belonged to the visitors.
But Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin shared a stand of 52 before Sharma was out for 35, lobbing Santner to Ish Sodhi at mid-on.
Then Boult got into the act with the wickets of Wriddhiman Saha, Ashwin and Mohammad Shami with the new ball as India slumped to nine wickets down with less than 300 on the board at stumps.
Much to the surprise of Virat Kohli and his men, New Zealand have put a tremendous show in the opening Test of the three-match series thus far.
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16 Number of fifty-plus scores by M Vijay in Tests since 2013 – joint highest by an India batsman. The hosts will be eager to register their 11th win under Kohli and make the historic 500th Test a memorable one for their fans.
