Tendulkar lead India's charge by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	New Zealand v India
Player:	G Gambhir, V Sehwag, SR Tendulkar
Event:	India in New Zealand 2008/09

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DateLine: 19th March 2009

 

Half centuries from Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar gave India a measure of control in the Hamilton Test, though New Zealand's seamers and Daniel Vettori chipped away steadily to prevent a run-glut. Gambhir and Dravid fell before they could go on to make a big score, and New Zealand's situation would have been even better had Daniel Flynn held on to a tough chance at midwicket after Sachin Tendulkar miscued a pull off Vettori shortly before the interval. Tendulkar remained unbeaten on 70 and he looked at ease.

 

Play started 15 minutes late because of overnight rain and there was moisture around to interest the seamers. But the breakthrough was courtesy some poor cricket from the Indians. Gambhir played Mills into the covers and set off for two. But with Franklin making good ground and hitting the stumps direct, Sehwag was well short of his ground. He had made 24 from 21 balls and he looked completely disgusted with himself. Gambhir took his mind off the fiasco and began to find his array of strokes and he was joined by Dravid at the crease as both looked fluent from the onset.Gambhir was especially strong off his pads, walking down the pitch to work the ball through midwicket, and he also put the loose balls away with precise cuts and glances. Franklin induced an edge off the first ball he bowled, but didn't really generate enough pace to be a menace, and there was little threat too from O'Brien. India didn't rattle along at Sehwag pace, but they weren't snail-slow either and Vettori was rapidly running out of options by the time he brought himself on with 10 minutes to go for lunch.

 

Gambhir and Dravid added 105 for the second wicket. They rotated the strike and though there were passages of relative quiet, the loose ball was invariably put away. That was especially true right after lunch, with Vettori and Chris Martin taken for several boundaries. But Martin struck just when things were looking bleak, coming round the wicket to induce the edge through to Brendon McCullum. Gambhir made 72 from 135 balls. Tendulkar took 11 balls to get off the mark, but with Dravid batting fluently, the run rate didn't dip. Dravid's half-century took 108 balls and when he followed it with a lovely cover-drive off Iain O'Brien, things were looking ominous. But O'Brien got one to nip back a shade off the seam and hit the top of off stump of Dravid who looked stunned with that delivery.

 

Reprieve apart, Tendulkar was content to work the ball around, though he accelerated when the new ball was taken. The bowling was tidy, with Vettori leading the way, but the bowling for most part of the day lacked penetration.

 

Post-tea the Kiwi bowling picked up and bowled a restrictive line and length forcing Tendulkar and Laxman to graft. Of the two Laxman rarely looked in and struggled with his timing mistiming several of his shots. There were few moments of concerns when some of his shots managed to just evade the fielders. But Laxman's stay the crease did not last long when he edged an outswinger from Martin off the second ball of the new ball over. Tendulkar stepped up the ante as soon as the new ball was taken and collected for himself a some beautifully timed boundaries. Yuvraj took his time to settle down and once the ball began to fine the meat of his bat he looked comfortable.

 

The light began to deteriorate rapidly and when the umpires offered the light to he batsmen both of them accepted it readily.