The Indian bowlers had a fabulous time on the first day of the second test match against New Zealand. They managed to get the opposition all out for 8 short of 200 and put their team into a commanding position.

In reply, the Indian top order played well and at the stumps, the visitors were trailed by less than 100 runs with 8 wickets in hand.

There was a lot of grass being left on the pitch intentionally by the curators so that the Kiwi fast bowlers get some assistance, but, that move backfired as the Indian bowlers took more advantage of the wicket and the conditions. They kept on pitching balls at good length and got a lot of purchase out of the wicket.

When the New Zealand quickies came on to bowl in the last session, they couldn’t quite do the same thing. Seeing so much grass on the wicket, they perhaps got a bit carried away and tried to bang too many deliveries in which resulted in boundaries.

Earlier, the hosts came into the match without one of their senior batsmen Ross Taylor who withdrew because of the personal reasons. So, on his place, the young top order player Tom Latham made his debut.

The Indian XI was unchanged and rightly so because none of their players had performed pathetically in the first match. Yes, they had lost that game, but, their performance as a unit was appreciable.

MS Dhoni, the Indian captain, won the toss again and sent the Kiwis in. It was always going to be a huge test for the batsmen to bat on that surface. The wickets were bound to fall and they did fall.

With not even 50 on the board, 4 New Zealanders were into the pavilion. Williamson, Anderson and Neesham played useful hands later on, but, those were not enough to take the Black Caps past 200.