India was pushed to the backfoot after yet another familiar top-order batting collapse as hosts New Zealand took firm control of the first cricket Test riding on skipper Brendon McCullum’s brilliant double century here today.
McCullum’s sparkling 224 guided New Zealand to a commanding 503 in their first innings despite a six-wicket haul by pacer Ishant Sharma.
India was struggling at 130 for four, when bad light halted second day’s play with Rohit Sharma standing tall amidst ruins batting on 67 in company of Ajinkya Rahane (23 batting). India is 373 runs behind New Zealand’s first innings total and still requires another 174 runs to avoid follow-on.
India’s top-order again performed miserably as it was reduced to 10 for three at one stage with Shikhar Dhawan (0), Cheteshwar Pujara (1) and Virat Kohli (4) back in the pavilion due to some inspired seam bowling by Trent Boult and Tim Southee.
Murali Vijay (26) did all the hardwork before Neil Wagner dismissed him with a beauty to reduce India to 51 for four.
Rohit-Rahane did some repair work with an unbroken 79-run stand for the fifth wicket.
Rohit especially looked in silken touch as he hit eight fours and a six off Kane Williamson in the 102 balls that he faced so far.
Coming in at 10 for three, Rohit was initially a bit shaky as he scored only one off 24 deliveries before getting the first boundary off the 25th one.
He had a partnership of 41 runs with Vijay, who saw left-arm seamer Neil Wagner fire one in from wide off the crease and the delivery straightened after pitching to beat the batsman clipping the bails in the process.
Once Vijay was gone, Rohit decided to counter-attack as he hit three boundaries off a Wagner over. A pull, a punch through covers followed by a deliberate glide over slips.
In another Wagner over, Rohit hit a perfect cover drive while he pushed Southee for a boundary through mid-off effortlessly. Out of his eight boundaries, six were hit off Wagner.