New Zealand had the things going in their way when they won the match and chose to bat on a flat pitch. They were expected to score big but Indian bowlers had come to spoil their party this time. Though India already had their top class bowlers ruled out of the final test due to injury.
Indian bowlers struck the visitors hard at the time when it wasn’t expected that Indian bowling was having any firepower left after Zaheer Khan already ruled out of the game and considering their performance in the previous tests.
New Zealand had to open with Guptil and McIntosh as McCullum had injured himself just before the match during fielding practice which meant that McCullum will have to come in the middle order this time. The openers didn’t provide much trouble to the Indian bowlers as Sreesanth removed both the openers in a short while and was getting into his rhythm as he was able to swing the bowl well.
New Zealand soon after lost Taylor and their skipper Vettori, Taylor provided some resistance to Indian Bowling but was dismissed by Sharma and Ojha respectively. Ishant Sharma was playing a game after a long break and was good to see him back in form with his in-swings and out-swings in positions.
New Zealand’s day was summed up by the wicket of Kane Williamson by Sharma again though Ryder made a fighting fifty to save his team from a shameful innings but was also struggling throughout his innings because of his calf injury. Brendon McCullum was sent in the middle order to provde some time to rest his injury but wasn’t provide much rest by the Indian bowlers as they had sent of all their top order batmen to the pavilion.
The day had been tough from the New Zealand point of view and also had in injury to their main batsmen and one batmen was already suffering from injury in the game. India showed off their classy performance to put the visitor on the back foot on the opening day of the final test.
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