On an overcast morning in Bengaluru, India collapsed to 10-3 after winning the toss and choosing to bat first in the first of the three Tests against New Zealand.
After day one was washed out due to rain, India won the toss on day two and chose to bat first despite a heavy cloud cover. New Zealand went in with three seamers as compared to India's two quicks, and they wreaked havoc on the Indian top order in the first hour of play before rain interrupted proceedings.
Southee and Henry put on an exhibition
Tim Southee and Matt Henry opened the bowling for New Zealand. Southee generated a lot of swing in the air away from the right hander, while both bowlers used the scrambled, three-quarter seam to good effect to generate movement off the surface as well. The Chinnaswamy pitch, which had been under covers for two days, aided them, providing bounce, carry, and generous amounts of sideways movement.
Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal played and missed a couple of balls in the first three overs, before the first real chance was created in the fourth over. Henry angled a full ball into Rohit's pads before it nipped away sharply, missing his flick and hitting his back leg. Henry was off in a celebrappeal, but the umpire gave it not out on field, which turned out to be crucial as ball-tracking showed umpire's call, saving Rohit early on.
Jaiswal survived a close lbw shout in the same over too, as a length ball pitched in line and hit him on the knee-roll, but the bounce of the Bengaluru surface meant it would have passed over the stumps. Just when New Zealand would have started to feel that they should have had a wicket or two to show for their efforts, their rewards came.
Three wickets in 19 balls
Rohit, trying to force things, gave Southee the charge on the third ball of the seventh over. It was a three-quarter seam delivery, that landed very full around off stump and cut back in like a sharp off-break, crashing into the top of Rohit's leg stump.
India promoted Virat Kohli to No.3, who was batting there for the first time since 2016. His innings lasted only nine balls (fetching no runs), however. Will O'Rourke, the new fast bowling sensation on the block, was brough on in the ninth over. He had a leg gully for Kohli, which came in handy as extra bounce from a back of length on the last ball of the over forced Kohli to fend awkwardly. It caught his gloves and lobbed up to Glenn Phillips at leg gully who, expectedly, made no mistake.
Sarfaraz Khan came in at No.4 and looked at sea against Henry's pace. On the third ball he faced, Sarfaraz played a nothing shot, trying to loft a length ball over mid-off. Extra bounce, however, meant that it caught the splice of his bat. Devon Conway ran to his right and dived full-stretch to take a stunning catch and leave India tottering at 10-3, with Sarfaraz out for a duck as well.
Also read: Why India need to be wary of Will O'Rourke, New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson Mark II
