Day 3 ended because of a disruption caused due to bad light. Indian bowlers found a way through the stringent Kiwi batting lineup and somehow sneaked a 49-run first innings lead.
The day started with a bit of surprise from the Indian camp, as KS Bharat walked out to keep wickets in place of Wriddhiman Saha. Resuming at their overnight tally of 129 without the loss of a wicket, they added another 21 runs in a decent amount of time before Ravichandran Ashwin provided the first breakthrough.
Will Young had edged a delivery that straitened, and the thin outside edge was tough for umpire Nitin Menon to pick. He had to reverse his original decision of not out when substitute keeper KS Bharat asked his captain for a referral quite confidently.
Despite tightening the screws to a decent extent, the Indian bowlers kept conceding the odd boundary. When the spinners were not doing the trick, just at the stroke of lunch, Umesh Yadav dismissed Kane Williamson with a sharp inswinger that dashed into his pads.
The spinners were brought back after Williamson’s dismissal, and Axar Patel followed up with three big wickets after the lunch break. Ross Taylor fell for the loop and turn of a classic left-arm off-breaker, whilst Henry Nicholls tried to sweep across the line and was adjudged LBW.
The big fish, however, was the wicket of Tom Latham. Batting on 95, he walked many miles down the track to Axar, who was smart to adjust his length a little shorter, and KS Bharat once again did well to pick up the ball with awkward turn and rattled the stumps.
Rachin Ravindra and Tom Blundell had a short little troubled stay in the middle, where they tried to negotiate the turn and awkward bounce but were struggling to do so. Ravindra’s troubles were brought to an end by Jadeja, who cleaned up his wickets with a sensational incoming delivery which was pitch up but bounced a bit too high.
Indian spinners continued to keep the game in their grasp, but the World Test champions were not bowing down that easy. They lost four wickets in the second session, all to the cheeky left-arm spinners in the Indian contingent.
Axar, who provided an early breakthrough after the lunch break, was at it once again at the start of the third session. Tom Blundell was foxed by a flat delivery coming in from around the wicket, which kept way too low. There was too much pace on the ball for Blundell to get anywhere close on time, and it crashed into the woodwork.
Tim Southee fell almost immediately in a pretty similar fashion, failing to keep up with a smartly pitched delivery that once again kept low and found the stumps. Kyle Jamieson found a couple of boundaries in a bid to accelerate the scoring and was eventually caught by the deep fielder when he tried doing so against Ashwin.
The off-spinner from Chennai finished New Zealand’s innings by cleaning up Somerville with just seven overs remaining in the day. They got 296 runs in their account in 142.3 overs. Patel achieved his fiftth fiver-fer in seven innings in Test cricket, and walked out to a resounding ovation as he flaunted the match ball to the crowd.
India had a tricky five overs to negotiate, with Southee and Jamieson bowling two brilliant overs each. Jamieson did a double over Shubman Gill with his first ball in the second innings, and once again, it was Shubman’s bat and pad gap that did the work for the Kiwi speedster.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Mayank Agarwal saw out the remaining overs, as India finished with 14 runs on the board and a slender advantage of 63 runs at stumps.
Brief Scores
India 1st innings: 345 all out in 111.1 overs (Iyer 105, Gill 52, Jadeja 50; Southee 5/69, Jamieson 3/91)
New Zealand 1st innings: 296 all out in 142.3 overs (Latham 95, Young 89; Patel 5/62, Ashwin 3/82)
India 2nd innings: 14/1 in 5 overs
