New Delhi: India’s good display continued as Zaheer Khan struck early to reduce the hosts to 24/1 at the end of Day 2. This was after Ajinkya Rahane’s maiden ton took India to 438 in their first innings of the second Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.
Zaheer trapped Peter Fulton LBW in his very first over, the second of the innings. Fulton had only seen Zaheer swing the ball away and didn’t expect it to come in, which it did. He shouldered arms to it but the ball hit the pads to end his stay at one.
Earlier in the day, India continued batting from 100/2. Ajinkya Rahane scored his maiden Test century and put up a 114-run partnership with MS Dhoni to give India a massive first innings lead of 246.
Rahane helped built two crucial partnerships, one with Virat Kohli for 63 and then with Dhoni for the seventh wicket. The young man did not display much emotion on getting to his first century. He just raised his bat briefly.
His talent and class marked his entire stay at the crease. Beautiful cover drived, straight drives and pulls flowed freely from the bat. He even hit Neil Wagner for a huge six. It took a brilliant catch from Trent Boult for the hosts to finally see his back.
After tea, he looked poised for a big score but fell to Trent Boult for 68. A well directed bouncer at his rib cage forced him to play at it, getting a faint edge to BJ Watling behind the stumps.
India scored a 101 runs while New Zealand took three wickets in an even the morning session. Shikhar Dhawan’s composed 98 complimented Ishant Sharma’s career best 6/51 on the first day.
The first man to fall in the day was Ishant, who had come in as the nightwatchman. He did well to keep the bowlers at bay all morning, reaching 26. Eventually, he fell to a terrific catch behind the stumps by Witling.
Rohit Sharma failed to impress once again. He poked at a full length delivery outside off, looking to pierce the cover field, but ended up dragging it on to his stumps, leaving the crease without troubling the scorers.
Kohli (38) seemed to be in good touch but fell prey to Neil Wagner’s consistency and patience. He tried to drive a fullish delivery just outside off, a line Wagner had held all day, could not keep it down and gave a simple catch to short cover.
Bureau Report
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