Men in Blue take big lead, fighting Kiwis on backfoot
Kolkata : India emerged stronger in the battle of attrition against a gritty New Zealand to take complete control of the second cricket Test by grabbing a 339-run lead, riding on Rohit Sharma’s fluent 82-run knock on day three of the match here.
The Indians were pushed hard in the first two sessions but roared back in the final session to be 227/8 at stumps, which were again drawn early at 63.2 overs owing to bad light.
Wriddhiman Saha (39) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (8) were at the crease when play ended for the day.
Despite the patchy batting performance, the hosts look set to go 2-0 up in the three-match series, a result that would also propel them to the top of the ICC Test rankings.
Earlier, resuming at previous day’s 128/7, the Black Caps’ first innings wrapped up at 204 helped primarily by comeback-man Jeetan Patel’s run-a-ball 47, which was laced with nine hits to the fence.
The struggle on the difficult-to-negotiate Eden Gardens track, however, was not exclusive to the New Zealanders and the hosts too found the going tough.
The in-form duo of pacer Matt Henry (3/44) and Mitchell Santner (3/51) continued to deliver for New Zealand, especially in the post-lunch session before Virat Kohli’s men gathered themselves in the final session.
Reduced to 91/5, the home team was rescued by Rohit and Saha, who had scored an unbeaten half-century in the first innings as well. The two put on 103 run off 179 deliveries to steer India out of trouble.
Eden Gardens thus once again proved to be Rohit’s happy-hunting ground where he has a debut Test century, an ODI world record 264, two IPL titles for Mumbai Indians, beside a Ranji Trophy double.
Among the top half, Kohli, who has been struggling for some time, produced a fine 65-ball 45, including 7 fours, to announce his return to form before being trapped LBW by Boult off a delivery that kept low because of the unpredictable bounce.
Rohit took it forward from there and hit nine fours and two sixes en route to his second fifty in two Tests, and sixth overall. The 29-year-old’s fluent knock was brought to an end by Santner who induced a faint edge from his bat, caught by Luke Ronchi.
Rohit made his intentions clear by hitting Jeetan Patel for a six over midwicket early in his innings, and when Trent Boult (2/28) was making the ball talk bowling at shoulder height, the Indian counter-attacked with a pull over square leg boundary.
There was a minor blip for Rohit when Patel almost castled the Indian but the delivery missed the off-stump and the Eden did not deny him a half-century.
Earlier, in reply to India’s 316 in the first innings, New Zealand were bundled out for 204 in 53 overs in the first one and half hour’s play.
Playing his first Test after more than three years, No.9 Patel, who was flown in from England to replace an injured Mark Craig, was the top-scorer for New Zealand with his 47 in a 60-run partnership with BJ Watling (25).
Patel’s career-best score took New Zealand past the 200-mark. Senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin gave India the first breakthrough of the day in his first over.
New Zealand, however, did well to survive the opening hour’s play which included a brief 10-minute rain halt.
India 1st innings
All out: 316
New Zealand 1st innings
M Guptill b Kumar…………………………………….13
Latham lbw b Shami………………………………….1
Nicholls b Kumar………………………………………..1
R Taylor c Vijay b Kumar…………………………….36
L Ronchi lbw b Jadeja……………………………….35
Santner lbw b Kumar………………………………..11
Watling lbw b Shami………………………………..25
M Henry b Kumar……………………………………….0
J Patel c Shami b Ashwin…………………………..47
N Wagner lbw b Shami……………………………..10
Boult not out…………………………………………….6
Extras: (b9, lb4, w5, nb1)…………………………19
Total: (All out)………………………………………204
Bowling: B Kumar 15-2-48-5, Shami 18-1-70-3, Jadeja 12-4-40-1, Ashwin 8-3-33-1.
India 2nd innings
Vijay c Guptill b Henry………………………………..7
Dhawan lbw b Boult…………………………………17
Pujara lbw b Henry…………………………………….4
Kohli lbw b Boult……………………………………..45
Rahane c Boult b Henry………………………………1
Rohit c Ronchi b Santner……………………………82
Ashwin lbw b Santner…………………………………5
Saha not out……………………………………………39
Jadeja c sub b Santner………………………………..6
Kumar not out…………………………………………..8
Extras: (b10, lb1, w2)………………………………13
Total: (for 8 wickets)……………………………..227
Bowling: Boult 14-5-28-2, Henry 15.2-2-44-3, Wagner 13-2-43-0, Patel 8-0-50-0, Santner 13-1-51-3.
‘Just could not relax’
Middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma said the relaid Eden Gardens wicket kept the Indian batsmen on their toes right throughout the match and the willow-wielders could not afford to “relax” even for a moment.
“You may have seen this in the last two days. They have relaid the wicket. It’s not a typical Kolkata wicket what it used to be. There’s uneven bounce. At no point batsman could relax or take it for granted. Every ball you played, you had to make sure that you gave 100 per cent,” Rohit told reporters at the post day’s press conference.
“Condition was never easy. Once the ball get softer, there’s not much for the bowlers. If you put the ball in the right areas you will get odd bounce. There’s something in the surface throughout the day, not just in the morning, afternoon or evening. You just could not relax,”
But Rohit, somewhat, answered back his detractors in this series hitting his second successive half-century. “There is no pressure. It only comes from the media that I’m under pressure. You may have seen that on the field. Did I look under pressure in the first or this Test?”
