Wellington: Dropped catches by the Indians enabled New Zealand to stage a remarkable recovery on the third day of the second Test although the visitors still held the upperhand here on Sunday.
Facing a massive first innings deficit of 248, the home side was tottering at 94 for five but New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum (not out 114) was dropped by Virat Kohli on 9 and by Ishant Sharma off his own bowling when he was 36.
McCullum and BJ Watling (52 not out) could not be separated thereafter and had put on an unbeaten 158-run sixth-wicket partnership to give their side a slender lead of six runs with five wickets standing.
McCullum pulled the team out of early trouble and made full use of two reprieves to battle his way to 114 off 237 balls and together with Watling, who scored an equally important 52 off 208 balls, led a brilliant fightback to keep New Zealand afloat.
McCullum and Watling guided New Zealand to 252 for five in 99 overs at stumps on the third day.
The pitch on offer was a far cry from the juicy green surface of the first day and was a perfect platform for New Zealand to wipe out the huge deficit after India made 438 in their first innings in reply to the hosts’ 192.
But the start of the day was far from rosy for the Black Caps as veteran pacer Zaheer Khan inflicted early damage by removing two wickets in the opening session to reduce New Zealand to 87 for four at lunch.
The post-lunch session too started on a precarious note for New Zealand as they lost Corey Anderson (2) cheaply before McCullum and Watling joined hands to bail them out and ensured that India will have to come out to bat again in their second innings.
But with two full day’s play remaining and New Zealand leading India by just six runs with five wickets in hand, the visitors will still fancy their chances to level the series after the hosts won the first Test by 40 runs at Auckland.
Zaheer (3-60) was the pick of the bowlers for India, charging his way throughout the day, albeit losing steam in the final session. Ishant Sharma (0-63) and Mohammad Shami (1-72) did much of the horse work while Ravindra Jadeja (1-49) bowled a whopping 26 overs, the most of all the four Indian bowlers.
If the first session belonged to India, the next two sessions, especially the post-tea period, was all New Zealand’s as McCullum and Watling batted with utmost cautious to frustrate India.
McCullum decorated his ninth Test hundred with the help of 14 fours and one six, while Watling struck just four boundaries en route to his seventh Test fifty.
Starting at 146 for five after tea, New Zealand were staring down the barrel and were on recovery path after McCullum and Watling scored at a snails’ pace in the post-lunch session, managing only 59 runs off 29.5 overs.
The duo carried on in the same fashion, picking and choosing the deliveries to score off, even as the Indian bowlers were maintaining tight line and length throughout the day.
Shortly into the final session, in the 68th over, McCullum reached his half-century off 146 balls, with five fours. It was a grinding innings but in the process he became only the fourth New Zealand batsman to reach the 5000-run mark Test cricket.
India had couple of good shouts against the two batsmen now and then, but they were nothing close to the two chances they offered McCullum earlier in the day.
India needed to break the sixth-wicket partnership and expectedly did not waste any time to take the second new ball in the 80th over of the innings.
But McCullum and Watling continued their resistance and raised their 100-run stand off 254 balls.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni expected the new ball to do the trick but the move didn’t work.
McCullum cloberred Ishant over the long-on boundary for a six to bring up his century in style off 197 balls.
Watling give McCullum able support and reached a well-deserved half-century in the 93rd over off 190 balls.
It also marked McCullum and Watling’s 150-run partnership and in doing so, they broke the record of Chris Cairns and Craig McMillan, who had scored New Zealand’s previous best for the sixth-wicket in Tests against India. They had scored 137 runs at the same ground in 1998. (PTI)
SCORECARD
New Zealand 1st inn: 192
India 1st inn: 438
NZealand 2nd inn: (o’night 24/1)
P Fulton lbw b Zaheer 1
H Rutherford c Dhoni b Zaheer 35
K Williamson c Dhoni b Zaheer 7
T Latham c Dhoni b Shami 29
B McCullum batting 114
C Anderson c & b Jadeja 2
BJ Watling batting 52
Extras: (b-2, lb-6, nb-4) 12
Total: (5 wkts; 99 overs) 252
FOW: 1-1, 2-27, 3-52, 4-87, 5-94
Bowling: Ishant 23-3-63-0, Zaheer 25-8-60-3, Shami 25-4-72-1, Jadeja 26-6-49-1