Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara continued with the good work that the Indian spinners did early morning to put their team in a commanding position on Day Three of the first Test against New Zealand at Green Park here on Saturday.
It was by far India's day who first bowled out the visitor---who started the day at 159---for 262 and then displayed a very commendable batting performance to take the driver's seat in the first of the three-match Test series.
India had a dream start with three quick wickets and kept probing away despite some gutsy resistance from Luke Ronchi and Mitchell Santner. The hosts also enjoyed huge slices of luck at critical moments and eventually earned a substantial first innings lead of 56 runs.
Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up his fifth five-wicket haul picked up his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests, while Ravichandran Ashwin swelled his Test wicket count from 193 to 197.
In their second innings, Indian openers Vijay and KL Rahul gave them a solid start before the latter fell prey to Ish Sodhi at his individual score of 38.
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The number two ranked Test side finished the day at 159-1, the same score that New Zealand ended the second day.
Vijay (64*) and Pujara (50*) are currently there at the crease and India has an overall lead of 215 runs.
With two days more left in the game, chances of a result are very high with India holding the edge over the visitors.
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