India vs New Zealand: Boult from the blue

Spinner Mitchell Santner and paceman Trent Boult combined to lead New Zealand’s fightback and restrict India to 291/9 on the opening day of the first Test on Thursday.

At 154/1, India looked set for a big first innings total but after Santner claimed three top and middle order wickets, Boult (3/57) wreaked havoc with the second new ball to peg back the hosts at Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium.

Rather unsurprisingly, New Zealand’s three spinners bowled bulk of the overs to share five wickets among themselves on a typical sub-continental track which had little for the pacemen.

Ravindra Jadeja (16) and Umesh Yadav (eight) will return on Friday looking to take India, who went into the match with four bowlers to accommodate an extra batsman, at least past the 300-run mark.

Earlier, Lokesh Rahul and Murali Vijay gave the hosts a decent start after skipper Virat Kohli had opted to bat in India’s 500th Test.

Rahul’s last four innings across formats had yielded two centuries and a fifty and the right-hander, chosen ahead of Shikhar Dhawan, dominated his 42-run stand with fellow opener Vijay.

The 24-year-old hit four boundaries, and a six off Mitchell Santner, before getting a faint edge to wicketkeeper B.J. Watling in the left-arm spinner’s second over.

Cheteshwar Pujara (62) then joined forces with Vijay (65) to prop up the innings, the duo adding 112 runs for the second wicket and rarely looking in discomfort.

They brought up their individual fifties in successive overs before Santner had Pujara popping a simple return catch.

After 11 overs of toiling on an unresponsive pitch, Neil Wagner struck a body blow when he banged it short and induced Kohli (nine) into attempting a pull shot early in his innings, only for the right-hander to top edge a catch to Ish Sodhi.

Scorecard India (1st innings): K.L. Rahul c Watling b Santner 32, M. Vijay c Watling b Sodhi 65, C. Pujara c & b Santner 62, V. Kohli c Sodhi b Wagner 9, A. Rahane c Latham b Craig 18, R. Sharma c Sodhi b Santner 35, R. Ashwin c Taylor b Boult 40, W. Saha b Boult 0, R. Jadeja (batting) 16, Mohammed Shami b Boult 0, U. Yadav (batting) 8. Extras: (b5, lb1) 6. Total: (for 9 wkts. in 90 overs) 291.

FoW: 1-42, 2-154, 3-167, 4-185, 5-209, 6-261, 7-262, 8-273, 9-277.

Bowling: Boult 17-2-57-3, Wagner 14-3-42-1, Santner 20-2-77-3, Craig 24-6-59-1, Sodhi 15-3-50-1.

Neil Wagner dismissed Virat Kohli for the third time in 77 balls. Indian skipper’s batting average in Tests against Wagner is 14.66. Kohli’s batting average against New Zealand before this Test match was 85.20. He has hit two hundreds and three fifties in just seven innings before this Test.

Lokesh Rahul made 32, Murali Vijay scored 65 and Cheteshwar Pujara 62. It was first time in two years when India’s top three each scored 30 or more runs in an innings. The last time was in 2014 at Lord’s in second innings. India played 34 innings after Lord’s Tests

We’re not in a bad position, says Santner With India claiming to be in good position after the first day’s play in the opening Test, New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner reckoned that his side were not in a bad position either, considering the kind of start the hosts got.

“After losing the toss, I think we are in a reasonably good position. It was pretty flat to start with. They did bat well. We were lucky to have got a few wickets here and there to pull it back. Obviously, we have to pick up this last wicket and then bat well, build partnerships,” Santner, who claimed three key Indian wickets, said.

India frittered away a solid start to be reduced to 291 for nine on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand after opener Murali Vijay (65) and Cheteshwar Pujara (62) struck half-centuries.

Talking about the crucial moment that tilted the scale in New Zealand’s favour, Santner said while India captain Virat Kohli was a key wicket, it was important to dismiss others too.

“They got a very good start at 100 for one. That partnership between Vijay and Pujara was great. Like you said, Kohli is a big wicket, but India have a very strong batting line-up going down to Jadeja at No.9. So every wicket we got was crucial because they can all take it away from you.

“We stuck to our plans reasonably well and managed to get a couple more towards the end to be in not a bad position going into tomorrow,” Santner said.

When told that India also think that they are in a good position, Santner refused to debate on the point.

“There’s a lot of cricket to be played still. First things first, it’s to get the last wicket early tomorrow and then once we bat, build partnerships and go from there. I don’t think we can get too far ahead in terms of thinking about chasing a fourth-innings score at the moment. Just take it day by day and go from there,” he said.

Asked about what was going through in their mind when two good partnerships were going for India, Santner said they just wanted to bowl in right areas.

“They did bat well. Both Pujara and Vijay looked quite positive against the spinners. They had a plan. They really rotated the strike pretty well, which was the key,” he added.