India against New Zealand in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hyderabad-c792 Test
Another master class innings by the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429, has put India in a strong position at the end of the second day of the second Test against New Zealand being played at the Uppal stadium in Hyderabad.
The hosts had a great day as they rolled over the Black Caps for 350 after they had resumed at a relatively strong position of 258/4.
The assault by Sehwag took the hosts to 178/2 at close of play and although they are 180 runs shy of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid at the crease.
The New Zealanders started cautiously upon resumption of play, the Indian bowlers looked to be on top of their game, especially left arm pacer Zaheer Khan, who was spearheading the Indian attack.
He troubled the batsmen with his pace and guile and got rewarded when he sent back wicket-keeper Gareth Hopkins, trapping him lbw when the right hander shouldered his arms to one that swung in late.
The score board read 269/5 at this stage and soon the Black Caps were ruing the demise of first Test centurion Kane Willamson, who was sent packing for 4 runs.
From there on the New Zealand team was on the back foot and their position worsened with the fall of Captain Daniel Vettori, who was the third consecutive batsman to fall lbw.
Harbhajan Singh was the successful bowler this time as the left hander fell for 11 runs off 22 balls with 1 four.
The New Zealanders had to endure more trouble before the lunch break as Jessie Ryder ran out of partners. The second centurion from the first Test was sent packing for 70 by Harbhajan with the ever reliable Venkat Laxman holding onto a catch.
Ryder’s innings included 10 fours and came off 120 balls, the visitors took lunch at 341/9 and on the eve of the break they lost their ninth wicket when Tim Southee became Harbhajan’s third victim when he was stumped by Dhoni for 10 runs.
New Zealand was eventually bowled out for 350 runs in the 118th over of the innings, for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 Zaheer Khan was the main wicket taker claiming 4 wickets while the wily Harbhajan Singh also took 4 wickets, Shiv Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha claimed
a scalp each.
The Indians reply got off to a jittery start as openers http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623 and Sehwag found the going tough initially.
Slowly but surely they succeeded in breaking the shackles as Sehwag launched a furious assault on the bowlers with his typical aggressive strikes.
Soon the tide had turned in India’s favour as the two openers went past the 100 run mark.
Sehwag posted his half century in his usual run-a-ball fashion tackling 70 balls for his first 50 runs.
It is pertinent to mention here that he scored a mere 2 runs off his first 23 balls before laying into the Black Caps.
On the other hand Gambhir played himself back into form with some delightful drives.
He reached his half-century off 120 balls striking 7 fours in the process. The Indians were all guns blazing in the final session and it looked as if the Black Caps were in for a long leather chase before Vettori broke through the defences of Sehwag.
The belligerent Sehwag was on 96 when he lost his stumps. The Indians were then jolted further before close of play.
Gambhir was caught behind the wicket by Hopkins off seamer Tim Southee for 54 runs, and the Indians finished the day 180 runs behind the New Zealand first innings score.
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