New Zealand arrived in Kolkata expecting a rank turner and to make matters worse, they lost the toss. The Eden Garden curator though seemed to have different plans as the 22 yard strip had a green top and assisted the Kiwi pacers. The Indian batsman had their back against the walls as they were at 46/3 after Matt Henry took Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay out of the equation quickly. Trent Boult then piled on the misery as the out of form Virat Kohli was caught nudging a delivery outside the off stump.
It was then that Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane forged a 141-run participation to bring some parity. With the Kiwi bowlers tiring, things seemed set for a tough session for stand-in captain Ross Taylor’s bowlers as the duo upped the scoring rate with a series of fluent boundaries in the first few overs of the final session.
One drive too many, however, cost Pujara on 87 as he picked out short-cover with India’s score on 187/3. Then off-spinner Jeetan Patel, replacing the injured Mark Craig, got into the act, accounting for Rohit Sharma (2) and Rahane (77) to bring New Zealand right back into the match.
Just before the end of day, another graceful knock from Ravichandran Ashwin came to an end as Trent Boult got one to nip back in and rap him in front of the stumps. Ravindra Jadeja survived a close leg-before shout in the last over of the day as India finished the day at 239/7.
