Tim Southee bowled an incisive morning spell to take five wickets which was then brilliantly complemented by openers Will Young and Tom Latham as New Zealand dominated India to reach 129-0 on Day Two of the opening Test here on Friday.
The only highlight for India in an otherwise disappointing day was Shreyas Iyer’s (105 off 171 balls) debut hundred.
Playing his 80th Test match, Southee (5-69) took his 13th five-wicket haul on an unresponsive track to send India packing for 345 after they started the day at 258 for 4.
Young then held centre-stage in his fourth Test appearance as he looked composed and unperturbed during his unbeaten knock of 75 off 180 balls.
Latham survives
Latham (50 batting off 165 balls), the seasoned campaigner, survived three on-field decisions (two leg before and one caught behind), negated by DRS, and decided to frustrate the two Indian spinners with a gritty defensive game.
Also Read: Shreyas gets maiden ton on debut; Southee bags fifer; IND 339/8
The Green Park 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 a 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.
Axar disappoints
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 the surface.
13
No. of five-wicket hauls claimed by Tim Southee in Tests
Brief scores
India 345 all out (S Iyer 105, S Gill 52, R Jadeja 50, R Ashwin 38, A Rahane 35; T Southee 5-69, K Jamieson 3-91, A Patel 2-90) v New Zealand 129-0 (W Young 75*, T Latham 50*)
Also Read: Tim Southee, openers bring New Zealand back in game as visitors reach 129/0
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