Skipper Virat Kohli was the star for the Indian side as he remained unbeaten on 44 after they lost both the openers and Cheteshwar Pujara.
Early tea due to bad light. Another interruption due to bad light. Six overs of play then bad light and another interruption. This was, however, the final one as along with the bad light, some drizzle arrived in Southampton, which brought back covers and that was the final nail in the coffin of any hopes of resumption of play on the second day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand.
Only 64.4 overs of play could be possible as India finished the day at 146/3 with skipper Virat Kohli and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane in the middle, having stitched a partnership of 58 runs.
New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl first under damp conditions after almost two days of rain in Southampton, Kohli said that he would have also liked to bowl first but he wouldn't mind runs on the board as Kiwis will be the ones to bat in the fourth innings.
Encapsulating skipper Kohli's mindest openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave a terrific start to their side and New Zealand were on the backfoot pretty quickly. Some wayward bowling from Tim Southee and Trent Boult meant the two players known for their strokeplay didn't hold themselves back and feasted on anything loose.
The duo brought up the 50 partnership and these were ominous signs for New Zealand. Boult did get Rohit to play and prod and got bat-pad a number of times, however, it was the 6'8" tall Kyle Jamieson, who made the ball talk. He looked the most dangerous as he was getting movement off the surface, extra movement.
And, he was the one who got the first breakthrough for his side and induced a false stroke from Rohit. A fuller outswinging delivery, Rohit pushes at it straight to Southee in slips, who dived towards his right to take a brilliant catch. It wasn't long before the workhorse Neil Wagner sprung into action as he got Shubman Gill edging into the gloves of BJ Watling on just the fourth ball of his spell.
After which, Pujara and Kohli got their side through to lunch and they both were pretty watchful at the start. However, Boult came back nicely in his next spell getting Pujara plumb in front of the wickets.
Kohli then took the onus and kept the scorecard ticking with a boundary here a string of twos there and Rahane joined him at the bad light started interrupting not once, not twice but three times.
While the forecast doesn't look great for the third day as well but one can only hope.
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