Brendon McCullum century puts New Zealand ahead at Hyderabad
Brendon McCullum made a dashing century on the fourth day of the second Test match against India on 15 November at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hyderabad-c792 to put the side in a position of relative safety.
Trailing by 122 runs in the first innings, the New Zealand side ended the fourth day on 237/4 to ensure that they needed to bat well for only one session on the fifth and the final day in order to stave off
a defeat.
Earlier, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, who were resuming on their overnight total of 436/9, added 36 more runs before they lost their last wicket. In the process, Harbhajan became the holder of many records by the time the innings
had ended, scoring his second successive century in the series. He got to his 100 in the morning and then overcame Virender Sehwag to become the top-scorer in the series. He had become the first ever to score two centuries at number eight in Tests and the
highest run-getter in a Test series batting at that position.
By the time Daniel Vettori had added a fifth wicket to his bag of scalps, the Indians had ensured that their lead had swollen up to 122 in the first innings. The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 side was under a huge pressure
at this stage given that they needed to first erase that lead on a fourth day Indian track.
However, McCullum clearly had other ideas. He attacked from the word go and that took the pressure off the shoulders of the other opener, Tim McIntosh as well. The pair added 125 for the first wicket and
in the process, wiped the lead off without loss.
McIntosh was unfortunate to miss out on his half century when he got out for 49 off the bowling of Pragyan Ojha but the collapse never ensued. First it was Martin Guptill who batted alongside McCullum to
add 49 for the second wicket before edging one off Ojha to the wicket-keeper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028.
Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/S-Sreesanth-c2398 for seven. Jesse Ryder assisted McCullum in adding 34 runs for the fourth wicket before Suresh
Raina had the better of him and by the time it was stumps, the Kiwis had surged ahead by 115 runs and with six second innings wickets intact.
If the Kiwis can bat out till lunch on Tuesday 15 November for the loss of not more than three wickets, the chances of an Indian win would have almost totally vanished. Unless, of course, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429
can spring a magical innings.
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