Gautam Gambhir dream run continues as he smashed his sixth test century and second of this tour to give India a massive 531 runs lead at stumps on day three. India ended day three at score of 349/5 with two most destructive players Yuvraj and Dhoni at the crease to get the runs quickly on day four and put huge amount of pressure on New Zealand when they came out to bat gain in their second inning.
Gautam Gambhit knock of 167 runs includes 16 boundaries and two huge sixes, he involved in two century partnership during India second inning. First he and Rahul Dravid (60 runs) put on 170 runs for the second wicket and then with V.V.S Laxman put on 106 runs for the fourth wicket.
India started the day on bright note with both Gambhir and Dravid looking good at the crease. They didn’t allowed New Zealand bowlers to settle into any rhythm. India went onto lunch with comfortably placed at 170/1. However soon after lunch interval Rahul Dravid caught cleverly behind the wicket by B.McCullum on the bowling of D.Vettori. When Rahul Dravid pre-meditated a paddle sweep off Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum started moving even before the shot was played but could not reach the ball. Dravid tried the same shot again later in the over but this time McCullum was quicker in moving down leg side and took the catch.
Dravid dismissal bring Sachin Tendulkar to the crease who is most probably playing his last inning on New Zealand soil also didn’t lasted longer and dismissed for just 9 runs by Daniel Vettori.
With the lead of close to 400, V.V.S Laxman arrives at the crease and once again he showed his class with some lusty blows down the ground and some wristy shots through midwickets region. Laxman went onto scored his 38th half century. In the process he also put on a crucial partnership of 106 runs with Gautam Gambhir for the fourth wicket.
New Zealand bowlers only enjoy their success during the third session of plays by removing both Gambhir and Laxman in the space of 12 deliveries with the second new ball. Both batsman dismissed by I.O’Brien.
With Dhoni and Yuvraj at the crease, Dhoni will try to play at least 10-15 overs on fourth days play to extend their lead up to 600 runs to put huge amount of pressure on New Zealand.
Due to bad light the game was stopped half-an hour early on 3rd day, so the fourth day play will start half-an hour early that is from 04:00AM Indian Standard Time to make for the lost overs.
yaa it was a great inning bcoz there is a difficult condition for the batsmen and he played a crucial knock ,even dravid and laxman made a great partnership with gautam thats make the team india to a winning position, i think the match will be ended tomorrow.
