Bengaluru, October 17 (IANS). Indian captain Rohit Sharma's decision to bat first after winning the toss on the second day of the first Test against New Zealand on Thursday proved to be suicidal. The entire Indian team was reduced to 46 runs in 31.2 overs. After this, by the end of the day's play, New Zealand scored 180 runs for 3 wickets in 50 overs and took a significant lead of 134 runs.
In New Zealand's innings, Devon Conway played a brilliant inning of 91 runs in 105 balls with the help of 11 fours and 3 sixes. However, it was his misfortune that he missed the century by 9 runs after being bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin. But, before that, he made 67 runs in the opening partnership with captain Tom Latham (15) and 75 runs with Will Young (33) for the second wicket. Latham was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav and Young was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja.
Rachin Ravindra was on 22 and Daryl Mitchell was on 14 when the second day's play was ended 11 overs early due to bad light. Both added 38 runs in the unbeaten partnership for the third wicket. Both the batsmen will try to strengthen their team's lead on the third day tomorrow. Whereas, after a forgettable performance on the first day, India would like to wrap up the visiting team quickly.
Earlier, the play started slightly late due to morning rain at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The first day's play was abandoned without a toss due to rain. Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat but the result was not in favor of Team India. India had a bad start and three of its batsmen returned to the pavilion for just 10 runs. Till lunch, India's score was 6 wickets for 34 runs. After lunch, Team India's first innings was reduced to just 46 runs in 31.2 overs.
New Zealand's fast bowlers Matt Henry and William O'Rourke forced the hosts to surrender, taking 9 wickets for India. India's score of 46 runs is its lowest Test score on home soil and third lowest overall. Five Indian batsmen returned to the pavilion without opening their account, which included Virat Kohli. For India, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant scored the maximum 20 runs, while Yashasvi Jaiswal contributed 13 runs. These were the two batsmen to reach double figures.
In favorable conditions, New Zealand's three fast bowlers did their best to trouble the Indian batsmen with swing and seam. After rain interrupted play for 35 minutes, the visiting bowlers made good use of back-of-length balls to maintain the pressure and put India in trouble.
New Zealand's fast bowlers dominated the first session. In this session, the Indian team lost 6 wickets while scoring 34 runs. 4 batsmen of the Indian team could not even open their account. William O'Rourke took 3 wickets, while Matt Henry got one wicket. Tim Southee also took one wicket.
There was a lot of joy among the spectators present on the ground when Virat Kohli was promoted to number three, but it ended when Williams sent Kohli back to the pavilion without opening his account. After lunch, Henry did not take much time to wrap up the Indian innings.
–IANS
AMJ/RR
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