Debutant Shreyas Iyer led India's fightback with the bat along with R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha with a half-century in the second innings.
Team India didn't have the best of starts on Day 4 with the bat, as half the side was back in the pavilion by the time the second innings lead touched 100 in the ongoing first Test against New Zealand in Kanpur and it seemed like it would be a massive collapse.
However, India's first innings hero Shreyas Iyer combined with the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha to get India out of a troublesome situation to safer shores and then to the point of dominance as by the end of the day India were ow just nine wickets away from a victory in the game.
Iyer, who smashed his maiden century in the first innings of his Test career played a splendid knock in the second as well, which proved to be much more tough and important. India were 51/5 and Ashwin helped Iyer take his time as the off-spinner came out with real intent.
Ashwin took care of the scoring, not missing out on any boundary opportunities and Iyer was watchful when the Kiwi pacers Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson were operating. When the two had stitched a partnership of 30 runs or so, the New Zealand spinners came into the attack and their ineffectiveness helped the hosts.
Ashwin was dismissed by Jamieson after he scored 32 runs but Iyer continued on. He put the bad balls away and since the field had eased out, singles started coming. Saha too hit a couple of boundaries and Iyer could just focus on taking the innings forward and he brought up his fifty as well.
Iyer became 16th Indian batter to score a century on debut and after scoring a fifty in the second innings, he created history on Sunday afternoon. Iyer became the first Indian batter to score a century and a fifty in his debut Test and only the third after Dilawar Hussain and Sunil Gavaskar to register 50-plus scores in both innings. Incidentally, he received his Test cap from Gavaskar before the game.
Iyer also joined another list, as he scored the third-most runs in his debut Test. Iyer's aggregate of 170 runs is behind Shikhar Dhawan's 187 in Mohali vs Australia and Rohit Sharma's 177 vs West Indies.
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