New Zealand decision to bowl first on Wellington wicket looks very promising when India slumps to 204/6, however late order batsman (Dhoni, Harbhajan, Zaheer and Ishant) helped India to end day one on very high note. At stumps India were 375/9 with Ishant Sharma batting on 15 and Munaf Patel is at the crease with 14 runs to his name.
Earlier New Zealand captain decided to bowl first on a wicket that looks very good for batting. However at one stage his judgment to bowl first was proved right when his bowlers taken six top order Indian wickets for just 204 runs on the board. At that stage only M.S.Dhoni was left for India with tail to follow.
M.S.Dhoni (52 runs) and Harbhajan Singh (60 runs) once again showed how dangerous these two are when they are at the crease together. Both went on to put a crucial partnership of 79 runs for the seventh wicket.
Then later on Zaheer made a quick fire 33 runs of 23 balls to get his team score closer to 350 runs mark. At the end Ishant Sharma (15 runs of 21 balls) and Munaf Patel (14 runs of 11 balls) put on an unbeaten stand of 28 runs in just 24 balls to get the Indian score to 375 which was looking impossible at one stage when all the big guns was back in the hut.
Put into bat Sehwag and Gambhir gave their team a perfect start by putting a quick 73 runs for the first wicket in just 15.3 overs. Sehwag was most dangerous of two, smashing seven fours and huge six over point before getting out for 48 runs. Soon after Sehwag dismissal Gambhir was also trapped leg before by all-rounder James Franklin to reduce the Indian score to 75/2.
Sachin Tendulkar once again showed his class and determination in his inning of 62 runs which was his 53rd half century of his test career. Sachin Tendulkar forged a 90-run partnership for the third wicket with Rahul Dravid (35 runs). Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed just 10 runs short of he and Dravid's 17th century partnership in tests.
Tendulkar dismissal sparked a mini collapse for Indians as they lost three wickets in space of 52 deliveries. V.V.S Laxman was out for 4 runs, Yuvraj Singh for 9 runs and patience inning of Dravid came to and end with 35 runs to his name.
Indian team however recovered well and scored as many as 185 runs in the last session to take a slight edge at the end of day one.
Match Summary (Day1 Stump)
India 1st Inning – 375/9 in 90 Overs
S.Tendulkar- 62H.Singh–60
M.S.Dhoni – 52V.Sehwag- 48
C.Martin– 24-3-95-3I.O’Brien– 21-3-88-2
Playing XI for both teams (Match is schedule to begin at 03:30 AM India Time and Test Match will be Played from 3rd – 7th April)
New Zealand Squad: Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, D.Flynn, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, James Franklin, Brendon McCullum (WK), Daniel Vettori (Captain), T.Southee, Chris Martin, Iain O'Brien.
