India steadily march towards a big first innings lead

Tags: New Zealand tour of India - 2010, India v New Zealand 3rd Test at Nagpur - Nov 20-24, 2010, India, New Zealand, Ishant Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Rahul Sharad Dravid

Published on: Nov 21, 2010

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar helped themselves to unbeaten half centuries as India cruised to 292 for 2 in 82 overs by Stumps on Day 2.

Stumps on Day 3

Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar helped themselves to unbeaten half centuries as India cruised to 292 for 2 in 82 overs by Stumps on Day 2. India no doubt are setting up this match for a possible innings victory with the lead now at 99 runs. Rahul Dravid has moved towards 69 in 167 balls with 8 fours while Sachin Tendulkar has got to 57 from 126 balls with 7 fours. He is well set to score what could be his 50th Test century tomorrow!

There was not a single wicket going down for India in the final session with both Dravid and Tendulkar determined to keep their concentration intact. The Kiwis did take the second new ball towards the fag end and that will be their only hope of restricting the Indian lead on the third day. There were 34 overs bowled in the final session and India collected 87 runs at a slow but steady pace.

Tea on Day 2

India lost the wickets of both the openers in the afternoon session but are comfortably in the driver's seat as they cruised to 205 for 2 in just 48 overs. Rahul Dravid with 35 from 72 balls and Sachin Tendulkar with 6 from 16 balls are in the middle at Tea. India has taken a lead of 12 runs already and that is largely because of a wonderful opening stand of 113 between Sehwag and Gambhir.

Sehwag was the first to depart after dragging his slog flat back to the bowler Daniel Vettori when he was on 74 (from 73 balls with 12 fours and a six) in the 24th over. Gambhir went onto add 79 runs with Dravid for the second wicket before he dabbed a wide delivery from Tim Southee to gully where Ross Taylor took a sharp catch. Gambhir scored 78 from 127 balls with a dozen fours.

Lunch on Day 2

India got off to a rollicking start at 89 for no loss in just 19 overs by Lunch on Day 2 with Virender Sehwag smashing an unbeaten 55 from 55 balls with 9 fours and a six. Gautam Gambhir has stroked his way to an unbeaten 31 from 59 balls with 4 fours as India cut the first innings deficit to 104 runs in no time. The New Zealand bowlers failed to extract anything out of the pitch though Chris Martin hit the glove off Sehwag painfully at the start.

End of NZ Innings

New Zealand have been bowled out for 193 in 66.3 overs in their first innings. Ishant Sharma took two more wickets to take his tally to 4 for 43 while Pragyan Ojha too the last wicket to finish with 3 for 57. The visitors lost their last three wickets in just a little under an hour this morning. The first wicket to go was that of Brendon McCullum (40 from 84 balls) trying to play a forcing punch through covers but only to nick a bouncing delivery from Ishant to MS Dhoni within 20 minutes of play.

After McCullum, Andy McKay came in and was cleaned up by an attempted rising delivery from Ishant which stayed low and defeated the batsman comprehensively. Tim Southee who has some impressive array of big shots smashed 2 fours and 3 sixes before miscuing a lofted one off Ojha to get dismissed. Southee contributed a valuable 38 from 68 balls.

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