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Lower order puts India on top scoreboard

S. Ram Mahesh

Tendulkar, Harbhajan and Dhoni score fifties

— PHOTO: AFP

CELEBRATION TIME: New Zealand players are ecstatic after Yuvraj Singh is trapped in front by Jesse Ryder.

WELLINGTON: India took the first day of the third Test here at the sunlit Basin Reserve — but only just, and certainly not as planned.

New Zealand’s captain Daniel Vettori asked India to have a bat, which M.S. Dhoni, returning after missing the second Test with back spasms, said he would have done in any case. India lurched from 165 for two to 204 for six before surging to 375 for nine by stumps.

If it all sounds a little incredible, it’s because it was: India won the first hour (68 for no loss in 14 overs), dropped the second (33 for two in 13), reclaimed the third (60 for no loss in 15), and squandered the fourth (29 for three in 13); the fifth hour (52 for one in 14) saw a return to sanity, before the last hour and a half (133 for three in 21) turned on the craziness.

Sachin Tendulkar (62), Harbhajan Singh (60), and Dhoni (52) made half-centuries; Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, and Munaf Patel didn’t, but were no less worrisome to the New Zealanders.

And why was it such a full, entertaining day? Because swing restored the balance between bat and ball; although it must be said New Zealand’s bowlers, despite doing marvellously for much of the day, lost the plot towards the end.

Aggressive start

But let’s begin at the beginning. There are days in Test cricket when Virender Sehwag allows the new ball a few moments of respect. Friday wasn’t one of them.

Having seen the first delivery of the match — Chris Martin’s — swing across Gautam Gambhir, drawing an edge that didn’t carry to third slip, Sehwag seemed to decide he’d pummel the ball into holding a straight line.

Tim Southee, who replaced Jeetan Patel in the XI from the second Test, suffered the most. Once, incredibly, Sehwag kept his appointment with a wide ball that was swinging further away, slicing it for six over point. Other times he went through and over cover.

Cramping Sehwag

It was left to Iain O’Brien, after morning drinks, to cramp Sehwag. The delivery, manufactured from close to the stumps, shaded in off the seam. Sehwag stayed beside the line, angling the blade to miss point. Brendon McCullum took the thin nick.

Gambhir fell leg-before to a fine bit of bowling from James Franklin. The left-armer has a lovely, loose action and a stable, snappy wrist — qualities that help him find swing if there’s any around. Franklin isn’t a bowler for dry days and flat tracks, for his is just the sort of pace (early to mid 130 kmph) a batsman fancies. But when given something to work with, he is useful.

Franklin swung a couple away from Gambhir, the seam, slanted to slip, guiding its flight. Then he offset the seam, so it came out scrambled — as a result, the ball held its angle into Gambhir’s front pad. The left-hander, still looking for the away-swinger, was late with his bat.

Tendulkar batted beautifully in the hour after lunch. He stood on tip-toe to square-drive Franklin and Martin, but it was his upper-cut off the latter, played swaying away from a lifter while dabbing simultaneously at it, that drew the loudest cheers from an excellent crowd that had distributed itself on the grass banks.

But Martin, whose energetic, bounding run-up never flattened through the day, trapped the great man in a rare position of vulnerability. Tendulkar forced his hands at one that bounced on him from back of a length. The edge was sought and gained.

V.V.S. Laxman drove loosely outside the off-stump; for the third time this series he was caught in the slips, Tim McIntosh doing splendidly at second to hold the sharp chance. Yuvraj Singh planted his front heel to a full, straightening delivery from Jesse Ryder’s golden arm.

Fatal error

It’s a fatal position, for it allows no readjustment — all Yuvraj could do was twist awkwardly around his front foot to be adjudged in front of his stumps. When Rahul Dravid — caught behind off a Franklin no-ball during his three-hour-three-minute stay for 35 — pulled Martin to the man in front of square-leg, India was in danger of falling for fewer than 250.

Dhoni and Harbhajan added 79 for the seventh wicket, the former walking into drives, the latter punching off either foot with fast hands. Both were fortunate, for edges squirted and ballooned out of reach. Dhoni attacked Vettori’s left-arm spin; Harbhajan attacked all comers: there’s no question they stung New Zealand, and Zaheer’s belligerence against O’Brien, whom he hit for four fours in an over, and Munaf’s harebrained swiping hurt the home side further.

Brilliant take

McCullum’s stunning catch to dismiss Zaheer — an effort that saw the wicketkeeper leap like a trout before taking it one-handed — was New Zealand’s only consolation during this period.

SCOREBOARD

India - 1st innings: G. Gambhir lbw b Franklin 23 (47b, 2x4); V. Sehwag c McCullum b O'Brien 48 (51b, 7x4, 1x6); R. Dravid c Franklin b Martin 35 (114b, 3x4); S. Tendulkar c McCullum b Martin 62 (85b, 11x4); V.V.S. Laxman c McIntosh b Southee 4 (16b); Yuvraj lbw b Ryder 9 (12b, 2x4); M.S. Dhoni c O'Brien b Southee 52 (89b, 6x4, 1x6); Harbhajan c Vettori b Martin 60 (78b, 7x4, 1x6); Zaheer c McCullum b O'Brien 33 (23b, 6x4); Ishant (batting) 15 (21b, 2x4); Munaf (batting) 14 (11b, 3x4); Extras (b-2, lb-8, nb-7, w-3) 20; Total (for nine wkts. in 90 overs): 375.

Fall of wickets: 1-73 (Sehwag), 2-75 (Gambhir), 3-165 (Tendulkar), 4- 173 (Laxman), 5-182 (Yuvraj), 6-204 (Dravid), 7-283 (Dhoni), 8-315 (Harbhajan), 9-347 (Zaheer).

New Zealand bowling: Martin 24- 3-95-3, Southee 18-1-94-2, O'Brien 21-3-88-2, Franklin 14-4-38-1, Vettori 9-1-47-0, Ryder 4-2-3-1.

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