Only 1 wicket falls on Day 4
ess bowlers allowed New Zealand off the hook as the home team rode on skipper Brendon McCullum’s monumental double century to continue their remarkable fightback and take a commanding lead on the fourth and penultimate day of the second cricket Test here on Monday.
McCullum remained unbeaten on 281 runs and shared a world record partnership of 352 runs for the sixth wicket with BJ Watling (124), helping their side reach a formidable 571/6 at stumps and take the game away from India at the Basin Reserve.
India, who had New Zealand in a spot of bother at 94 for five in their second innings on Sunday, are now facing the prospect of even losing the match with the hosts swelling their lead to 325 runs.
The duo defied the visitors for 123 overs and turned around a 246-run deficit into a massive lead with one day left in the match.
McCullum was still batting after nearly six sessions at the crease, facing 525 balls and hitting 28 fours and four sixes.
At the other end, James Neesham brought up his maiden Test fifty and was unbeaten on 67 off 93 balls, with nine fours.
For India, Zaheer Khan (3-129), Mohammad Shami (2-136) and Ishant Sharma (0-124) toiled hard on an unresponsive pitch, particularly with the third new ball. Ravindra Jadeja (1-108) was rendered ineffective as well.
Part-timers Rohit Sharma (0-40) and Virat Kohli (0-13) were given a go to try something different, while skipper MS Dhoni (0-5) also bowled after the tea break.
Starting at 440/5 after tea, the set batsmen had another string of batting records coming their way, with the pitch playing perfectly for them. As Dhoni bowled his gentle medium-pace first up, McCullum and Watling crossed the 350-mark for their partnership in the 159th over.
An over later, they brought up the highest ever sixth-wicket partnership in Test cricket, breaking the 351-mark by Mahela and Prasanna Jayawardene, also set against India at Ahmedabad in 2009. Their lead also swelled to 200 in the meantime.
The third new ball was taken immediately and the Indian pacers put in a lot of effort to change the direction of the match.
Shami got the breakthrough finally, in the 161st over, trapping Watling LBW. He faced 367 balls in his innings, hitting 13 fours.
Meanwhile, McCullum carried on and crossed the 250-run mark, starting to climb the ladder for highest individual score for a New Zealand batsman (299 by Martin Crowe).
Neesham also joined in the fun and struck some lusty blows, matching his partner for strokes.
After play, Watling said he feels proud of the effort as the visiting bowlers put him through a “storm”.
“I am definitely very proud of the way we went about things today. I think Brendon batted extremely well again today and to be in the position we are now after two days ago, we are pretty pleased with how things went,” said Watling.
“It was just a grind. We just took each ball at a time, each over at a time, each hour at a time. They came at us hard and we sort of weathered the storm and then got a few runs away and just kept trying to take them as deep as we could. To lose one wicket throughout this fourth day is a pretty pleasing effort,” he added.
“At five for 90-odd, you are feeling the pressure a bit. They are bowling well and taking wickets, so it’s again just trying to get through there and try and create a partnership and try and take it deep.
“Yesterday, it was pretty much about batting through the day, and try to fight our way back into the game. Today was pretty much the same,” he said.
“The first hour was crucial. If we managed to not lose a wicket there, we felt we could kick on and try and keep going.
“Each session that started was just about starting again and keeping the partnership going and get as many runs and take as much time out of the game as possible.” (PTI)
SCORECARD
New Zealand 1st inn: 192
India 1st inn: 438
NZ 2nd inn: (o’night 252/5)
P Fulton lbw b Khan 1
H Rutherford c Dhoni b Khan 35
K Williamson c Dhoni b Khan 7
T Latham c Dhoni b Shami 29
B McCullum batting 281
C Anderson c & b Jadeja 2
BJ Watling lbw b Shami 124
J Neesham batting 67
Extras: (b-5, lb-11, w-2, nb-7) 25
Total: (6 wkts; 189 overs) 571
FOW: 1-1, 2-27, 3-52, 4-87, 5-94, 6-446
Bowling: Ishant 39-4-124-0, Zaheer 43-12-129-3, Shami 40-5-136-2, Jadeja 49-10-108-1, R Sharma 11-0-40-0, Kohli 6-1-13-0, Dhoni 1-0-5-0