Twitter Reactions: Latham and Young make India toil for wickets after Tim Southee's five-wicket haul

New Zealand ended Day 2 on 127/0 in response to India's 345.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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5 Min Read

Will Young and Tom Latham
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Will Young and Tom Latham. (Photo Source: Twitter/ BLACKCAPS)

New Zealand have stormed back into the ongoing first Test with a terrific performance on the second day. They first didn’t let India cross the 350-run mark thanks to Tim Southee who picked up a five-wicket haul. Then their openers, Tom Latham and Will Young, batted superbly and applied themselves well as the visitors didn’t lose even a single wicket after batting for 57 overs.

Earlier in the day, Shreyas Iyer hogged the limelight becoming the 16th Indian player to score a century on debut in the longest format of the game. He showed great application against some disciplined tight bowling from New Zealand, especially Tim Southee. However, the pacer made sure he nipped out the batters at the other end.

Ravindra Jadeja was bowled without adding a run to his overnight score while Wriddhiman Saha edged one behind to the wicketkeeper. Ravi Ashwin came out and played some elegant strokes. But soon Iyer drove one off Southee uppishly only to be caught at cover. He scored a wonderful 105 runs with 13 fours and two sixes but got out at the wrong time for India.

Meanwhile, Ashwin continued to impress with the bat and held one end with Umesh Yadav also hanging around in the middle. Prior to close to 11-over resistance from the duo, Southee sent back Axar Patel to complete his third five-wicket haul against India in Tests. Ashwin played well to muster 38 runs but Ajaz Patel cleaned up the remaining two wickets minutes after the lunch break.

India were skittled for just 345 runs when they looked like scoring more than 400 runs at one stage. Southee returned with the figures of 5/69 while Jamieson couldn’t add a wicket to his overnight tally.

Latham and Young impress during unbeaten 127-run stand

For many, India’s 345 would’ve seemed enough but New Zealand openers had other ideas. Latham and Young walked out to bat and it wasn’t a procession, like it has been with other visiting teams in India in Test cricket. Both the batters played out the new ball and then kept the trio of spinners, Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, at bay for the rest of the day.

There were some close shaves with the ball turning suddenly and Latham was literally adjudged out three times by the umpire only for the batter to overturn the decision. The southpaw showcased some exceptional patience staying unbeaten on 50 off 165 balls with four boundaries to his name. His partner Young was even more impressive in his application using his feet well against the spinners and playing a near chanceless innings.

His bat was always close to his front pad during the front-foot defence and chose correct deliveries to attack in order to churn out runs. He scored at a faster pace than his partner remaining not-out on 75 off 180 balls with 12 fours. New Zealand had reached 127/0 when the umpires called it stumps due to bad light. The Kiwis have fought their way back into this Test and it’s up to India now to respond if they are to not concede any lead in the first innings.

The pitch has slowly started to show its colours with odd ball staying low and turning viciously. If New Zealand even get close to India’s first innings total, the pressure will be on the home team in the third innings of the match.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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