Tim Southee sparked a collapse to complete his third five-wicket haul against India in Test cricket while openers Tom Latham and Will Young produced incredible knocks to take New Zealand to a position of control after the end of play on the second day of the first Test at Kanpur’s Green Park stadium on Friday.
India, who were placed at a strong position of 258/4 after the first day's play, lost six wickets for 87 runs on the second day morning on Friday and failed to break the resolute opening stand between Latham and Young, which surged to an impressive 129/0, with the Kiwis trailing by a further 216 runs and all of their 10 wickets intact.
The only bright spot for India on Friday was Shreyas Iyer joining an exclusive list of batsmen to have completed centuries on their Test debut. The right-handed aggressive batsman, who batted at India's current captain Ajinkya Rahane's position of No 5, resumed at 75 not out to add another 30 runs to his overall total, thus going past the magical three-figure mark.
Iyer fell to Southee when he tried to clear the infield on the off side but ended up playing straight into the hands of Young at cover. His innings ended at 105 runs from 171 balls, which also included an impressive 13 boundaries and 2 sixes.
While Iyer provided the reasons for Indians to smile on Friday morning, there was nothing much from the rest of the batting. Ravindra Jadeja was dismissed when he chopped one on to his wickets off Southee, without adding any run to his overnight total of 50, for which he consumed 112 balls and hit 6 boundaries.
Southee had struggled for fitness as he had a groin strain on the opening day of the series but returned to the field on Friday with supreme fitness and form to produce one of the most spectacular fast bowling spells seen in India in the longest format.
The next victim for the weather in New Zealand fast bowler was India's experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha, who failed to keep one down and ended up giving a regulation catch to Tom Blundell behind the wickets for 1.
Akshar Patel has been long admired for his all-round skills as witnessed in the shortest format of cricket. But in Tests, the challenges are different as the left-handed batsman discovered the quality of Southee. The New Zealand pacer forced Akshar to poke at a ball which should have been left alone, inducing an edge which landed straight into the glass of Blundell as India continued to sink further.
Ravichandran Ashwin outscored the stand-in India captain Rahane has the all-rounder made 38 from 56 balls with 5 boundaries, but he was dismissed by Ajaz Patel, who had bowled lot of overs on the first day which also witnessed him resorting to a negative line outside the leg stump when Iyer was in full flourish.
Ajaz did not waste any more time in getting the final wicket of the Indian innings, trapping Ishant Sharma in front of the wicket for a five-ball duck as the home team folded for 345 in 111.1 overs.
With a healthy score on the board, India hoped to make early inroads into the New Zealand lineup but Latham and Young had other plans. While the senior pro in Latham dropped the anchor to but cautiously and punish only the loose balls, Young batted with tremendous application, discipline, authority and skills to thwart any challenge which the Indians could come up with on Friday.
The unbeaten stand for first wicket between Latham and Young, which rose to 129/0 from 57 overs, witnessed India trying extremely hard to make a breakthrough but falling short. While some of the edges off the bat fell short to fielders standing close, Latham also had luck on his side as he utilised DRS as many as three times when he was declared out. Latham used the TRS appeal twice against leg-before decisions and once again against a caught-behind appeal.
The three India spinners and Ashwin, Jadeja and Patel tried a lot to make a breakthrough but it kept getting difficult as the day progressed further. The pitch at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur did not give any signals of breaking down any time soon but it did have plenty of surprises for batsmen on both the days. After Rahane played one on to his wickets on a delivery that kept comparatively low, a lot of deliveries spun past the bats of New Zealand openers Latham and Young but could not provide India with a breakthrough.
While India would certainly be up for the challenge after New Zealand knocked off a significant chunk from their first innings score, the visiting team would want to bat long and big in the first innings to ensure that they do not have to return to bat again on what will be a very spicy wicket on Day 4 and 5.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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