India in a spot of bother or it’s even-steven?

By Mohammed Rumman Khan | NT

The world test champions don’t appear keen to hand over their crown. A marvellous bowling stint from Tim Southee, who’s playing his 80th Test match, helped Kiwis dismiss India in their first innings for 345 shortly after lunch which was equally complemented by openers Will Young and Tom Latham as New Zealand dominated India on day two to reach 129 for no loss on the second day of the opening Test in Kanpur on Friday. The only highlight for India in an otherwise disappointing day was Shreyas Iyer’s (105 off 171 balls) debut hundred.

Will Young was unbeaten on 75 and Tom Latham with him on 50 not out to leave their side in the pink at Green Park at 129 without loss as bad light brought a slightly premature end to Friday’s proceedings. New Zealand still trail the hosts by 216 runs.

The track became better for batting on the second day and the turn that was on offer was minimal. The variable bounce wasn’t also there for the better part of the 57 overs that they batted.

Since it was slow turn, the Black Caps duo mostly plonked their front-foot and neutralised the turn. And when they played on the back-foot, there was enough time to manoeuvre on both sides of the wicket.

Both were able to adjust on the back-foot against Ravindra Jadeja (14-4-28-0) and Ravichandran Ashwin (17-5-38-0), both of whom didn’t look threatening on the day.

Also what made it worse for India was that hardly any delivery kept dangerously low, which could have brought the leg-before into the equation. The most disappointing of all was Axar Patel (10-1-26-0), whose accuracy on the leg stump line was of little or no value and it was once again proved that without assistance from the track, he is not even half the bowler that he is with some help from surface. Young, in particular, got as many as 12 boundaries while Latham helped himself to four hits to the fence. While Indian spinners can come back on the third day if the pitch considerably deteriorates but New Zealand would like to take the game deep by getting somewhere close to India’s first innings total and take it from there.

Latham made it a hat-trick of successful reviews late in the final session after again being adjudged out to make it a day to forget for the hosts and one to cherish for the Black Caps.

In the morning, Iyer became the 16th Indian cricketer to score a hundred on Test debut but the home side’s lower-middle order caved in meekly save Ashwin (38 off 56 balls), whose counter-attacking effort took them close to 350.

Resuming on his overnight score of 75, Iyer followed the great Gundappa Vishwanath in reaching the milestone at this ground.

Ashwin did the bulk of scoring in the morning session as India added only 87 runs, losing six wickets in the process.

New Zealand put themselves in a glorious spot to apply pressure on India’s second innings if they can continue their solidity with the bat on day three.

Ladies and gentelmen, make no mistake, Kiwis are aware of the fact that they are 216 runs behind and still a long way away. Towards the fag end of day’s play, Ashwin started troubling Latham a tad. The cracks will only widen and India could get some purchase tomorrow and things could change pretty quickly. India can pull things back in a jiffy but Black Caps’ batters are demonstrating grit and aggression. For New Zealand, next to follow is the world class batter Kane Williamson and game changer Ross Taylor, who would be looking to make some mark in India and break the 33-year-old jinx.

Brief scores:

India: 345 all out in 111.1 overs (Shreyas Iyer 105, Shubman Gill 52, Ravindra Jadeja 50; Tim Southee 5/69)

New Zealand: 129/0 in 57 overs (Will Young 75 not out, Tom Latham 50 not out).

-(with inputs from agencies)