India v/s New Zealand | Story of Day 1: Fall, rise and fall

The inability to make the most of the batting conditions and posting a mammoth first innings score has often been held against India. Captain Virat Kohli spoke about it on the match eve here. It is to India's good fortune that they have the threatening spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to pull things off, especially at home.

India also have Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane at Nos. 3 and 5, respectively, to repair the damage caused by the top-order. And the way things unfolded for the hosts, exemplified this point.

Pujara scored a magnificent 87 – falling yet again when in sight of a century – and in the company of Rahane (77), helped the hosts to 239/7 at stumps on Day 1 of the second Test here at the Eden Gardens.

India could have been in a better position, in terms of the number of wickets lost but credit also goes to New Zealand for creating the wicket-taking opportunities in extreme humid conditions, five of the wickets were taken by Matt Henry (3/35) and Jeetan Patel (2/66), both playing their first Test in some time.

Having won the toss, India lost the woefully short-of-runs Shikhar Dhawan for one in the second over. Dhawan, given a chance despite the selectors bringing Gautam Gambhir into the squad, chopped recalled fast bowler Henry, Tim Southee's replacement, on to his stumps. Murali Vijay did not do much.

At 28/2 in the 12th over, it was hoped that captain Virat Kohli would find a big score that has eluded him since his 200 in Antigua seven international innings ago.

With Kohli at the crease, New Zealand stand-in captain Ross Taylor (regular captain Kane Williamson had to sit out due to "illness") used left-armer Neil Wagner repeatedly. Wagner peppered Kohli with short balls, for it was to this weapon that Kohli perished in the first innings of the Kanpur Test. Learning from his mistake, Kohli did not fall prey to it here, letting the ball go unharmed.

However, when Wagner was taken out of the attack, Kohli might have heaved a sigh of relief. But he chased a widish delivery from Trent Boult and gave a catch to Tom Latham in the gully.

The first session belonged to the visitors who had only 13 fit players to choose from. Amidst the fall of wickets in the first session, Pujara batted with assurance. The Saurashtra right-hander, batting at his customary No. 3 position, dealt in boundaries while being watchful against the fired-up Henry and Boult.

When the spinners came, rarely did he step down the pitch. Pujara has been in top form of late, scoring 166 and 256* in Duleep Trophy since returning from the West Indies tour and also has batted long enough against the New Zealanders while scoring a half-century in each innings of the first Test.

He had 11 boundaries in his first 50 runs – his third successive fifty of the series – punishing the loose deliveries while otherwise showing no hurry to score. He was not worried about the strike rate – 39.72 on the day – something that has been held against him in recent times.

The situation warranted he held one end upwhile he found a suitable partner in vice-captain Rahane.

Rahane is also known for his penchant to score big. He showed the right moves while raising 141 for the fourth wicket with Pujara. The only blemish was when on 33, Rahane lofted Patel over mid-off. Luckily for him, substitute fielder Doug Bracewell did not judge it well while running backwards.

Pujara and Rahane pulled back the day's play from New Zealand's hold in the second session, seeing it off without losing a wicket. However, Pujara fell again when well set for a century, driving a Wagner half-volley straight to Martin Guptill at short covers.

Since scoring the series-clinching 145* in Colombo more than a year ago, Pujara has gone without a 100 in 12 innings. Hopefully, the team management does not hold against him the fact that he did not convert any of his four fifties in those dozen innings into a three-figure mark.

Pujara's dismissal opened the floodgates as India lost three more in the final session to hand the advantage back to New Zealand. It is crucial for India to score more runs on the second day as anything over 300 could prove to be enough on the pitch, which Rahane mentioned as two-paced and "not a typical Kolkata pitch".

N ZONE
3
No. of consecutive half-centuries Cheteshwar Pujara has notched up (62 & 78 in Kanpur and 87 in Kolkata)

141
No. of runs Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane added for the fourth wicket, India's highest for this wicket at Eden Gardens

77
Rahane's innings was his second highest score against New Zealand in Tests, his highest being 118 at Wellington in February 2014