While India made a bright start to Test No. 500 with Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara scoring half-centuries, reckless shots gave advantage to New Zealand as hosts finish Day 1 at 291/9
The occasion was great. The start was like a perfect script of a hit movie. The audience was what one would dream about.
From Sachin Tendulkar to Kapil Dev to Sunil Gavaskar, everyone was there to cheer for Team India on the occasion of the historic 500th Test match for the hosts here in Kanpur on Thursday.
Virat Kohli's tryst with toss was an added advantage to the hosts as that gave them an opportunity to overcome the fears of batting fourth on an already-cracked Green Park wicket.
There was no looking back as India got off to a perfect start with the scoreboard reading 105/1 after first session of play.
This was despite the fact that there was wind blowing at a good speed due to hazy weather. Ideally, visiting speedsters Trent Boult and Neil Wagner should have tried and got some assistance from the wind. But the lack of bounce and slow speed off the wicket never really made life of any Indian batter difficult.
But then there were new-age Indian Test batsmen, too, in the contest. And they probably thought that a bright start would translate into a big first-innings total. But a slight carelessness on the part of well-set batsmen like Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, both sharing 112 runs for the second wicket, and some foolish stroke selection by skipper Kohli and Team India's blue-eyed boy, Rohit Sharma, were enough to peg down India to 291 for nine at the draw of stumps.
The credit should also go to Kiwi bowlers, especially slow left armer Mitchell Santner and speedster Boult, for sticking to their gameplan of not letting Indian batsmen score any easy runs.
Solid first-half batting
It turned out to be a good toss to lose for Kane Williamson at the end. But not before Vijay and Pujara grabbed the initiative for hosts in this landmark Test.
The two were gently pushing towards a big total with the help of their good running between the wickets and use of feet against spinners. Knowing well that the team has been playing with an extra batsman (only four bowlers) for the very reason of putting a big score up on the board before the wicket starts crumbling, as one would expect after witnessing big cracks on the turf, Pujara (62) and Vijay (65) made a disciplined Kiwi attack so ordinary.
Pujara, in particular, was using his feet more effectively than his partner. But after lunch, Pujara chipped one back to Santner, who gratefully accepted his reward.
This was the much-needed wicket that the visitors needed to plot a comeback. The visiting bowlers suddenly started hovering over Indian batsmen's head. Kohli was the first to fall victim to a well-thought out plot. Wagner was deliberately targeting his body with short deliveries by keeping two fielders in the deep on the on side.
Kohli failed to keep his strokes in check and paid heavily for taking Wagner head on so early in his innings. After hitting the first one for a boundary, the Indian skipper walked into a well-laid trap. He played the next shorter one close to his body, only succeeding in looping it uppish to backward square leg region to fall for nine.
This, perhaps, disturbed a well-set Vijay at the other end and he, too followed his skipper a little later by trying to play a cut shot to leggie Ish Sodhi. This reduced India to 185/4 at the tea interval.
Rohit's flop show
This gave an ideal platform to selectors' favourite Rohit Sharma to silence his critics in the company of Ajinkya Rahane and late-order batsmen.
After surviving an early leg-before appeal against offie Mark Craig at his individual score of 19, probably because he was bowling round the wicket, Sharma had a chance to grab this golden opportunity of cementing his place at No. 6. Rahane, in between, paid the price for hanging his bat ahead of his pads against Craig that resulted in him getting caught at forward short-leg.
Ravichandran Ashwin joined Sharma in the middle to build a good 52-run partnership for the sixth wicket. However, like numerous other occasions at the Test level, Sharma fell to the worst shot of the day for 35. Looking comfortable in the middle, Sharma can never explain why on the earth he chose to lift an accurate Santner over mid-on.
As he was walking away from the 22-yard square, his team's think tank must have been looking for reasons to give him such long rope.
Now, it was left to the lightning Boult to strike hard on the late-order with the second new ball. Wriddhiman Saha had no clue that there was huge gap between his bat and pad which was enough for Boult to breach.
Ashwin got caught between playing and leaving as Boult's sharp delivery took his edge to slips. And the last one for the day was Mohammad Shami, who got castled to Boult's another beauty.
New Zealand now hope to complete the formalities early on Friday as Ravindra Jadeja (16) and Umesh Yadav (8) somehow managed to hang around till draw of stumps.
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