New Zealand openers Will Young and Tom Latham took their team to 72 for no loss at tea after veteran pacer Tim Southee restricted India to 345 by five wickets on the second day of the opening Test here on Friday. Showed great determination.
It was after Shreyas Iyer became the 16th Indian cricketer to score a century on Test debut, but the home team’s lower-middle order saved Ravichandran Ashwin (38 off 56 balls), whose counter-attack effort took him close to 350. delivered.
Right-arm Young (46 off 86 balls) and left-arm Latham (23 off 72 balls), who successfully appealed with DRS for two lbw decisions on the field, defended stubbornly for 26 overs, but their He also hit nine fours in the middle. To tick the scoreboard.
To be fair to the Indian bowlers, the bounce was better that day as Southee’s four-morning hunt was a testament as well as not much turn on the surface for both Ashwin (8-1-25-0) and Ravindra Jadeja (6) Was. -2-16-0).
New Zealand’s first target will be to reach 146 and avoid follow-on which will give them time to take the game deeper as India will need to bat at third position and it will not be easy on this track with variable bounce.
But the credit should go to Southee (27.4-6-69-5), who was bowling an extended spell of over 10 overs from one end, causing extensive damage.
Iyer (105 off 171 balls) resumed the overnight score of 75 and became the 16th Indian to score a century on Test debut and the second Indian after the great Gundappa Viswanath to reach the same ground after 52 years. became.
Ashwin did a great job of scoring in the morning session as India added only 87 runs for the loss of six wickets in the process.
But the morning also belonged to the experienced Southee who took his 13th five-wicket haul in his 80th Test. He was on target with the second new ball for the first time as he sent Ravindra Jadeja (50) back on his overnight score.
The Saudis, as usual, used the width of the crease and angles to trouble Jadeja and asked the ball to go through the length which was too much for conversation for the lower order players. Those balls were won by Wriddhiman Saha and Axar Patel.
Realizing that he is now batting with a tail as Saha (1 off 12 balls) is no longer the batsman one can put his faith in, Iyer hits a boundary but the best shot is Kyle Jamieson. (22.2-) had a cover drive. 6-85-3) which took them to 96.
A glide off Jamieson towards wide third man gave him a double and the moment every cricketer was waiting for. A century in India that would certainly add to the pressure on their captain Ajinkya Rahane for the game.
His innings had 13 fours and two sixes, which shows that he was always looking for ways to score runs rather than survive.
He was eventually dismissed for 105 when he tried a slow drive from Southee but it went straight into the hands of the cover fielder.
Ashwin, however, did not look troubled as he hit five boundaries including a regal cover drive off a rare loose delivery from Southee.
India 1st innings:
Mayank Agarwal c Blundell b Jamieson 13 Shubman Gill b Jamieson 52 Cheteshwar Pujara c Blundell b Southee 26 Ajinkya Rahane b Jamieson 35 Shreyas Iyer c Young b Southee 105 Ravindra Jadeja b Southee 50 Wriddhiman Saha c Blundell b Southee 1 Ravichandran Ashwin b Patel 38 Axar Patel c Blundell b Southee 3 Umesh Yadav not out 10 Ishant Sharma lbw b Patel 0 Extra: (B-5 LB-2 NB-4 W-1) 12 Total: (All out in 111.1 overs) 345
Fall of wickets: 1/21 2/82 3/106 4/145 5/266 6/288 7/305 8/3139/339 10/345
Bowling: Tim Southee 27.4-6-69-5, Kyle Jamieson 23.2-6-91-3, Aijaz Patel 29.1-7-90-2, William Somerville 24-2-60-0, Rachin Ravindra 7-1-28- 0.
New Zealand 1st Innings: Tom Latham 23 not out Will Young 46 not out
Extra: (LB-1, NB-2) 3 Total: (26 overs for no loss) 72
Bowling: Ishant Sharma 4-2-6-0, Umesh Yadav 6-2-12-0, Ravichandran Ashwin 8-1-25-0, Ravindra Jadeja 6-2-16-0, Axar Patel 2-0-12- 0.
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