New Zealand turn the screws

With the adrenalin kicking in, the batsman then threw the caution to the wind and hooked Ishant for a six above long leg.  Two balls later, he brought the shot out again, tonking another six over fine leg. Southee took two blows and gave back two. Newton’s third law of motion.

But in due course, there would be more than just equal and opposite reactions as a fired up Southee would come back and take, perhaps, the most crucial Indian wicket, Virat Kohli’s. New Zealand would reduce India to 10 for 3 in 5.2 overs in reply to 503. And he would do so off a gem of a short ball. Before which, however, the story of India’s bowling needs to be told.

Six of the seven balls of that Ishant over to Southee — one of them was a no-ball — were dug in short. It wasn’t the first time in two days that an Indian bowler had been carried away, bowling too much of the shot-pitched stuff for it to remain effective.

Poor bowling

India’s lack of disciplined bowling was duly punished. Brendon McCullum, who resumed on 143, drove a Zaheer Khan half volley to the ropes to bring up his 150, while Corey Anderson, who was 42 overnight, guided the next ball, by Ishant, to the third man boundary to reach his half century.

At 77, having played with authority on Friday morning, Anderson seemed well on his way to a deserved century when Ishant, or rather the umpire, cut him short with an lbw when the ball was going to comfortably miss the leg stump. In this well-paced knock, starting cautiously before picking up, Anderson showed he was more than just a slam-bang cricketer. He added 133 runs with McCullum in 31.3 overs.

McCullum brought up his double century with a six and a four off Ravindra Jadeja and he shared a fifty-run stand with No.10 Ish Sodhi after BJ Watling and Southee fell. It was McCullum’s second double century, with the previous one, 225, too coming against India.

He looked all set to overhaul his highest score, but fell one short when his pull off Ishant was spectacularly caught by Jadeja at the long-on boundary. The fielder caught the ball inches within the rope, but the momentum started to carry him over. Jadeja calmly threw the ball up in the air, crossed the boundary, came back in and caught it again.

A top effort to end a top innings. Ishant completed his first six-wicket haul since in the West Indies three years ago. Until not very recently, Ishant was labelled as an unlucky pacer, who would bowl well but wouldn’t get the reward. In this first innings, though, most of his dismissal weren’t due to good bowling.

There maybe something like Karma, then.   The best figures on the day weren’t the best bowling performance, which came from New Zealand. Trent Boult dismissed Shikhar Dhawan for a duck and Cheteshwar Pujara for 1 in the very first over of the innings to leave India dazed. Dhawan closed the face too early as looked to play a ball on the leg side only to edge it to the fifth slip.
It was a dismissal of a man out of form who would conjure up ways of getting out.

But Pujara has no form issues. Still he was drawn into playing an uncharacteristic stroke as he went for a wide, fullish ball outside the off-stump only to nick it to the wicket-keeper. New Zealand’s 503 started to look even more imposing when Southee got rid of the form man. Kohli was looking assured, leaving the ball well, when this delivery by Southee took off alarmingly, forcing the Indian to play awkwardly in front of his face. The ball grazed his thumb, hit his helmet and ballooned towards Peter Fulton at first slip.

Both Kohli and India were in a state of shock. The misery was compounded when Neil Wagner went wide of the wicket to bring one in and break Murali Vijay’s bails. India were 51 for four at that stage. However, as had been the case in New Zealand innings, once the ball lost its shine, batting became easy. Rohit Sharma survived a few testing deliveries by Tim Southee before finding his feet. He played a few good looking strokes on his way to a half-century. He added 79 runs with Ajinkya Rahane before bad light forced early stumps.

Ryder, Bracewell suspended for night out 

Jesse Ryder and Doug Bracewell have been suspended by the cricket board after they were found to be out on a late-night drinking session on the eve of the opening Test match against India here. Bracewell and Ryder, who were part of New Zealand’s 13-member squad, have admitted they were in an Auckland bar in the early hours of Thursday morning. “Their behaviour is totally unacceptable the night before a match. We trust the players to make good decisions and the pair have breached this trust,” team manager Mike Sandle was quoted as saying in the New Zealand Herald. Bracewell, who was the backup fast-bowling option, turned up on the morning of the Test match with a broken bone in a foot. Ryder was on standby for leading batsman Ross Taylor, whose wife is due to give birth to a second child.