Kumble buries Kiwis in Kanpur dustbowl

With 82 to get for the victory, India send the crowd into a hushed silence, losing two wickets in the first few overs of their chase. Was it going to be a story of David and Goliath?

At seven for two, walked in the man who needed the victory most for the team — skipper Sachin Tendulkar. People had greeted his arrival in the first innings with deafening cheers, but he had disappointed them with a very laborious stretch at the wicket.

He did not let them down the second time. The first shot was a gorgeous cover drive off Cairns. And then followed a stream of boundaries, the arc of which could be drawn right from third man to the fine leg fence.Anything short was punched off the backfoot through the covers and anything up was smacked with flourish and ease on the frontfoot. In between these shots came those heart-stopping, adventerous though risky paddle sweeps from the stumps to the spinners.

It was a vintage batting display which eased the pressure which built on the team after the loss of Ramesh and Dravid’s wickets. So much so that Devang Gandhi too joined in this run-feast and struck a few telling blows.

India’s expected victory charge received strong resistance in the morning from Stephen Fleming, Adam Parore and Craig McMillan.

The trio blunted the Indian spin attack to such an extent that at one stage India had come under pressure. Anil Kumble did not seem to extract the kind of uneven bounce which had made him so lethal here and Sunil Joshi was flat and ordinary, this despite India striking two early blows in the morning.

From 33 for five, the Fleming-Parore duo took the score to 71 and then developed a very threatening partnershipbetween Parore and McMillan, batting with a fractured finger. They attacked the bowlers and soon enough India appeared a bit listless on the field. Then came a stroke of luck, McMillan not finding the favour of umpire AV Jayaprakash, who ruled him out following a shout from Kumble.

The ball appeared drifting towards the leg side. It was all over after that with young Harbhajan Singh picking up three wickets and Joshi one. But it was the return of Kumble to his match-winning bowling feat which was the most pleasing news for India as they go one-up to Ahmedabad for the final Test match of the series.

SCOREBOARD

New Zealand (1st innings): 256

India (1st innings): 330

New Zealand (2nd innings):

Matt Horne lbw Kumble (60m, 41b) 3

Mathew Bell lbw Kumble (48m, 35b, 1×4) 7

Dion Nash b Kumble (1m, 1b) 0

Craig Spearman c Tendulkar b Harbhajan (22m, 13b) 1

Stephen Fleming c Dravid b Harbhajan (87m, 65b, 3×4) 31

Nathan Astle c Bharadwaj b Kumble (11m, 10b) 0

Adam Parore b Harbhajan (187m,137b, 7×4) 48

Craig McMillan lbw Kumble (62m, 55b, 1×4, 1×6) 31

Chris Cairns b Joshi (38m, 28b) 2

Daniel Vettori not out (29m, 21b) 8

Paul Wiseman lbw Kumble (6m, 5b) 0

Extras (b5, lb9, nb10): 24

Total (66.5 overs, 283 minutes): 155

Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Bell), 2-16, 3-17 (Horne), 4-28 (Spearman), 5-33 (Astle), 6-71 (Fleming), 7-128 (McMillan), 8-138 (Cairns), 9-150 (Parore)

Bowling: Srinath 9-5-12-0, Ganguly 1-0-2-0, Kumble 26.5-5-67-6, Joshi 15-6-27-1, Harbhajan 15-3-33-3

India (2nd innings):

Debang Gandhi not out (77m, 56b, 6×4) 33

Sadagoppan Ramesh b Cairns (10m, 7b, 1×4) 5

Rahul Dravid lbw Nash (5m, 9b) 1

Sachin Tendulkar not out (58m, 44b, 8×4) 44

Extras (lb1, nb1): 2

Total (for 2 wkts, in 18.2 overs): 82

Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Ramesh), 2-7 (Dravid)

Bowling: Cairns 3-1-10-1, Nash 4-1-11-1, Vettori 6.2-2-22-0, Wiseman 5-0-39-0

Result: India win by eight wickets

Man of the match: Anil Kumble