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| Follow-on puts India in strong position against New Zealand |
India is in strong position against New Zealand in the first Test match. With almost 6 sessions to go, you can expect a great for India in this Test Match. Indian spinners forced NZ for follow-on in the first innings. Indian spinners picked up nine first innings wickets between them, Ashwin finishing with 6 for 31. Both Ashwin and Ojha used
the the dipping length of the floated, spinning ball, slow turn off the
track and the uneven bounce on one side of the pitch to keep up their
interrogation of New Zealand's fortitude in adverse circumstances.
Earlier, Cheteshwar Pujara cracked a solid 159 and skipper Mahendra
Singh Dhoni hit 73 which helped India to reach 438. Dhoni and Pujara earlier consolidated India's position with a 127-run
stand for the sixth wicket, while Ashwin contributed 37 runs with five
boundaries.
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| Cheteshwar Pujara |
Pujara, who replaced retired Rahul Dravid at number
three made his first three-figure score only in his fourth Test and sixth
innings.
Some years ago, the question would be asked: Was anyone good enough
to replace Rahul Dravid in the Indian team? Now, we the answer in the form of Pujara, who had emerged as a run-making machine on the domestic
circuit. Here was a batsman born to play Test cricket, technically
sound and temperamentally gifted, immune to the rising Twenty20
phenomenon.
Pujara reached the heights of his mastery in domestic cricket when
he hammered three triple-centuries in just one month, an almost unheard
of feat.
