Opener Gautam Gambhir and Cheteshwar Pujara smashed blistering half-centuries as India pushed their lead to 385 after making 127-2 at lunch in the second innings on Day Four of the third and the final Test against New Zealand here at Holkar Stadium on Tuesday.
Resuming at overnight score of 18-0, India lost opener Murali Vijay for mere 12 runs after he got run out in the eighth over of the morning.
Gambhir (50), who had retired hurt with a shoulder injury late on Day Three, then steadied his side's innings along with Pujara as the duo went on to share a crucial 76-run partnership for second wicket.
Earlier, New Zealand were bundled out for 299 runs despite some brilliant effort by opener Martin Guptill (72) and James Neesham (71), thus allowing India to take a lead of 258 runs after declaring their first innings at 557-5.
At the time of filing of this report, India were 138-2 with Pujara and skipper Virat Kohli batting at 56* and 7* respectively.
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