Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant, who came out to bat with heavy strapping on his knee, started a bit cautious here but put his foot on the accelerator to score a 55-ball fifty.
Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli led India’s fightback on Day 3 of the ongoing first Test match against New Zealand, as the hosts posted 231/3 at Stumps. India trail by 125 runs, but the match doesn’t seem bleak anymore. New Zealand posted 402 in their first innings, taking a lead of 336 runs.
Rohit Sharma (52) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (35) gave India a strong start, but lost their wickets to Ajaz Patel. Then, Virat Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan led India’s fightback, with the former losing his wicket in the last ball. Kohli departed for 70 off 102 balls. Meanwhile, Sarfaraz remained unbeaten at 70* off 78 deliveries.
Kohli and Sarfaraz also raised a century stand in 101 balls, but the former’s wicket could prove to be a turning point in the second innings for India.
On Day 4, we could see Pant come first to bat with Sarfaraz as he was padded up on Day 3. After Pant, we could see KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin next in the batting order. The pitch is good for batting and India will hope to get ahead with wickets in hand.
Speaking after the final session on Day 3, New Zealand’s Ravindra said, “Was just trying to build partnerships. That partnership with Tim (Southee) really helped me out, the objective was clear and we knew what we needed to do. (On Bengaluru) It’s a little bit comforting although the wicket is completely different, nice knowing the surroundings. It’s a lovely wicket to bat. Not really superstitious. Great to have him (his father) here, it’s his hometown, also have some family here. Great crowd here as well. I actually took the whole booklet (of ticket allocations). Virat is obviously a great player, he punished us but we’ve still got a lot of runs to play with.”
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