IND v NZ, 3rd Test Day 1 Review: Kohli and Rahane pile on the runs

The final IND v NZ Test match of the series got off to somewhat of a historic occasion with the Holkar Stadium in readiness to host its first ever Test match. Having hosted four ODIs thus far, BCCI president Anurag Thakur was also present to oversee the proceedings whilst allowing himself the occasional smile. Perhaps the giggle would have been due to the impressive performances and the expectations on the Indian team at the time.

Prior to the start of the match, Murali Vijay explained to Simon Doull that this was a ‘One-Day International wicket’. He was right in the sense that the wicket would soon begin to offer turn on the subsequent days. In effect, it would make things easier for the Indians to complete their much-anticipated whitewash. Virat Kohli won the toss, and if there was some sort of telepathy between him and Murali Vijay, the Indian captain heeded the advice and opted to bat first.

Gautam Gambhir, decked in his old-school gear made his way out to bat as a member of the Indian team for the first time since 2014. However, the emotion was out of the way when the 34-year old southpaw began to crack the whip on the New Zealand bowlers, rolling back the years to the times when he and Sehwag dismantled bowling attacks at will.

While Murali Vijay took his regular patient route to batsmanship, Gambhir took on a more aggressive approach. Perhaps it was the time that Gambhir had realized the importance of making full use of the batting conditions on the first day’s play. With the Indians cutting loose on a batting paradise, it took some inspired thinking from the returning skipper Kane Williamson when he decided to attack with his spinners.

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The ploy worked when Murali Vijay was removed shortly after the introduction of Jeetan Patel. The 32-year old was dismissed to what is termed as cricket’s riskiest shot. Tom Latham hung on to the improbable catch as the Indian opener’s woes with bad luck continued. Gautam Gambhir however, was in no mood to throw in the towel just yet.

The southpaw seemed to take his comeback with a pinch of salt and enjoyment as he smashed the irresistible Matt Henry into the stands twice on the trot. It was not until he reached the 25-run mark that he took his first single of the innings. He smashed the ball at will before he became Trent Boult’s first victim.

New Zealand’s bowling coach Shane Jurgensen had said that he was pleased with the bowling of Boult in particular. And in this case, Boult seemingly repaid the faith thrust on him by Jurgensen when he dismissed Gambhir with the best delivery he bowled in the series.

Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara were left with the responsibility of bringing the control back to the Indian scorecard before retiring to the haven of the pavilion for the lunch break. In a nutshell, both sides had drawn the first blood they had wanted to in the first session of the match.

Brief Scores:

India, 1st innings: 75/2 (C Pujara 29; Jeetan 1/7)

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Indians displayed a very sluggish batting post lunch session and could add only 73 run in 30 overs. Virat Kohli and Pujara continued to dig in and play defensively.

The spin pace duo of Patel and Neesham continued to tease the Indians. It was a tough period for Kohl and Pujara. Patel was able to make the turn sharply on most of the occasion while Neesham stuck to the 5th stump like waiting for the batsman to commit a mistake.

New Zealand discipline finally paid off when Mitchell Santner landed a huge blow to India. India slowly crawled to the 100 run mark in the 36th over but lost Pujara in the same over.

Kohli and Rahane were brought together as a result and both ensured that there was no further damage and batted out the remaining overs to take India to 148/3 at Tea. Full credit to the kiwi bowlers who maintained a tight grip over the Indians and made full use of the tricky pitch on offer. In short, it was a session that belonged to New Zealand.

However, what followed was quite effectively the Virat Kohli and the Ajinkya Rahane show. Perhaps it was the time for the captain and his deputy to step up to the plate. They ensured that the Kiwi batsmen were pushed back after impressing in the previous session.

The duo added 119 runs after the tea session as the Kiwis did not pick up a wicket in the final session of the encounter. However, in spite of this, Kohli managed to play the patient game and secure his first century since his double hundred at Antigua. Moreover, he also put an end to what seemed to be a terrible run of bad form by remaining unbeaten at 103 at the end of the day’s play.

The 27-year old Indian skipper was joined by Ajinkya Rahane in his crusade against the New Zealand bowlers. Although Rahane went about playing his delightful shots, the issue in this case was that Rahane made several futile attempts to cut loose, something that almost saw him lose his wicket on multiple occasions. However, Rahane survived as the Kiwis’ bowlers had no answer to the defenses put on by Kohli and Rahane. They concluded the day with the upper hand at 267-3.

Brief Scores:

India, 1st innings: 267/3 (V Kohli 103*; M Santner 1/53)