Electing to bat after winning the toss, the Indians had a promising start to their innings, doing well in the pre-lunch session.
Advertisement
From an Indian perspective, it was a disappointing day as the spin duo took nearly 14 overs during second session between them to find their rhythm and the right length and pace to bowl on the slow track.
In the historic 500th Test match for India, Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav were at the crease at the close of play on 16 and eight runs, respectively.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja got good purchase as soon as they found the right pace and length to bowl and if the play had gone in to the final session, the spinners surely would have made life harder for the New Zealand batsmen.
When Trent Boult bowled short, Jadeja dared to hook, albeit imperfectly. He and Jadeja added 28 valuable runs inside the first hour on Day 2 to drag India to 318.
A 1-1 series draw will result in India dropping to the fourth position on 108 points and New Zealand rising to fifth on 97 points.
Earlier, Rahul made a cracking start, hitting two crisp boundaries off paceman Boult in the very first over. The ball thudded on to the opener’s pads in front of the wicket and he was on his way back scoring 21 off 31 balls. His innings was studded with four boundaries and a six.
Each and every Kiwi bowler was among wickets, highlighting a team effort, led by Santner.
India, captained by Virat Kohli, are heavy favourites to win their 500th cricket test, against New Zealand in Kanpur. Wagner then got a short one to go off Vijay’s arm guard to gully, but largely, the Indians were comfortable, safe in the knowledge that there wasn’t too much in the pitch for the pacemen to profit from.
But the lack of a fielder at that position saved Vijay and the Kiwis could only watch as the ball raced to the boundary.
The batsmen brought up their individual fifties in successive overs, but not before Latham had survived a scare. The Indian captain misjudged the bounce and the ball flew off the top edge for a relatively easy catch for Sodhi. He has also grabbed 17 wickets, with two five-wicket hauls.
Vijay followed off a delivery from the Indian-born Sodhi, before Rohit Sharma and Ravi Ashwin combined for a 52-run seventh-wicket stand.
Boult, in his final spell of the day, got rid of Ashwin wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha (0) and Mohammed Shami (0) almost polishing off the Indian tail.
Advertisement
At 1-154, India looked set for a big first-innings total but, after Santner claimed three top and middle-order wickets, Boult (3-57) wreaked havoc with the second new ball to peg back the hosts at Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium.
