New Zealand continued their fine rearguard performance against India in the second and final Test, reaching 347/5 in 127 overs at lunch on the fourth day here today.
Skipper Brendon McCullum (169 not out, 338 balls, 21 fours, 1 six) and BJ Watling (90 not out, 276 balls, 10 fours) continued to look solid in the morning session, carrying on their good work from the previous evening as the hosts now lead India by 101 runs.
They have now put on 253 unbeaten runs for the sixth wicket, even as Indian bowlers were guilty of not keeping a tight line in this first session.
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Zaheer Khan (3-96), Mohammad Shami (1-86) and Ishant Sharma (0-95) looked for early wickets expectedly, but when none came, they refused to alter their line of attack.
Ravindra Jadeja (1-61) was introduced only in the second hour of the session, but did not produce the desired results as another wicket-less session went by for India.
Starting at their overnight score of 252/5, McCullum (114*) and Watling (52*) needed a double approach on this fourth day's play.
If it was all about survival on day three, now they also needed to score runs and put pressure on India.
And they did not get bogged down, as shots started flowing once they both got a feel of the conditions early on.
For the record, the golden-brown pitch now looked completely different from the lush-green wicket that it was on day one.
Their progress was very heartening for the hosts' camp, with the scoring rate reaching 4. Seven over in the first ten, and in the first hour of play, 56 runs came in the 13 overs bowled.
The 200-run partnership between the two batsmen came up in the 110th over of the innings.
As if sensing the high scoring rate, Jadeja was introduced in the 115th over and was given an attacking field with three close-in fielders. But it didn't have any effect on the two settled batsmen who marched along without fuss.
