Fast bowler Umesh Yadav provided a major boost for India by removing rival skipper Kane Williamson cheaply as Nw Zealand went into lunch at 197 for 2 on the third day of the first Test.
The second new ball did the trick as Umesh pitched one on line off-stump, which cut back enough to find Williamson`s pads just when he was showing signs of settling down having reached 18 off 64 balls.
New Zealand scored 68 runs in that session and are now 148 runs behind India`s first innings total of 345. Opener Will Young (89 off 214 balls) missed out on what would have been his maiden Test century as Ravichandran Ashwin (28-7-57-1) gave the much-needed breakthrough.
Young`s senior partner Tom Latham hardly had any lapse of concentration during those first two hours, remaining undefeated on 82. He had so far faced 239 balls and hit 10 boundaries.
Williamson looked a bit shaky at the onset before hitting Ravindra Jadeja (20-6-44-0) for a couple of boundaries to ease his nerves.
The pitch on the third day didn`t change its character which actually became a problem for India`s left-arm spinners Jadeja and Axar Patel (14-2-33-0), who need a bit of assistance from the track to trouble the batters.
The only Indian bowler who looked penetrative was Ashwin, who finally got Young to edge one into the hands of substitute keeper Srikar Bharat. For a change, unlike Latham, Young`s appeal for a DRS review came cropper but not before he had added 151 runs for the opening stand.
Young had 15 fours in his career-best knock but it was Latham, who actually carried on from where he had left on Friday evening, continuing to defend well on the front-foot and punishing any loose balls available.
In fact, he charged down the track and also lofted Axar over mid-on for a boundary and a rasping square cut off Umesh (11.3-3-30-1) got him into the 80`s.
During the session, Ashwin was seen involved in an animated discussion with the straight umpire Nitin Menon after he decided to come round the wicket against Williamson and was seen walking on the dangerous area on his follow-through.
The intention was to create a few roughs with his bowling spikes in the region where if the ball lands, it would turn away from the dogged Latham. Umpire Menon having understood the motive had a word with Ashwin and skipper Ajinkya Rahane and after some discussions, normalcy prevailed.
Brief Scores:
India 345/10 (Shreyas Iyer 105, Ravindra Jadeja 50; Tim Southee 5-69) vs New Zealand 197/2 (Will Young 89, Tom Latham 82; Umesh Yadav 1-30)
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