500th Test: India waste solid start to collapse to 291/9 against New Zealand

New Zealands Mitchell Santner C celebrates the wicket of Indias Cheteshwar Pujara with teammates during the first day of the first cricket test match between India and New Zealand Pic AFPKanpur India frittered away a solid start as a middleorder collapse saw them reduced to 291 for 9 on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand despite halfcenturies from Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara at Kanpur on ThursdayAfter electing to bat in the historic 500th Test Indiawere comfortably placed at 154 for riding on 112run secondwicket stand between Vijay 65 and Pujara 62However a disciplined bowling effort complemented by some inept shot selection by middle and lower order saw four wickets for 16 runs after the second new ball was takenRohit Sharma 35 once again got a start only to throw itaway at the fag end of the day Ravichandran Ashwin was wellset before being dismissed by a brilliant delivery from TrentBoultWhile leftarm spinner Mitchell Santner 377 rocked thetoporder it was Boult who looked menacing with the secondnew ball finishing with figures of 357 in 17 overs All hiswickets during the last 10 overs of the dayRavindra Jadeja was batting on 11 at the end of the daywith Umesh Yadav 8The Green Park track was not a rank turner on the firstday itself but it did offer some assistance to the spinnersThe Kiwis fielded three spinners Santner offie MarkCraig and legbreak bowler Ish Sodhi who bowled 59 out of the90 oversIndia were comfortably placed at 154 for 1 after losingKL Rahul 32 but lost four wickets in gap of 15 overs spreadover two sessions to get into the backfootRohit 35 and Ashwin 40 combined for a fighting 52run stand for the sixth wicketIn an important phase in his Test career Rohit wasexpected to fire and he showed some early promise beforetrying to chip one off Santner over midon but was holed outby SodhiThe other two Indian batsmen who played poor shots wereskipper Virat Kohli 9 who fell for Neil Wagners short ballmistiming a pullshotBoult in his final spell of the day got rid of Ashwinwicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha 0 and Mohammed Shami 0nearly polishing off the Indian tail Wriddhiman and Shami gotidentical deliveries that jagged back in from three quarterlength breaching their defence Ashwin got one that was fulland kicked up from good length as he gloved it to Ross Taylorat wide second slipLokesh Rahul R and Murali Vijay run between the wickets during the first day of the first cricket Test match pic AFPIt was leftarm spinner Santner who removed prodigiousRahul in the morning session and later broke the secondwicketstand between Vijay and Pujara to open the window for hissideWagner bowled his heart out in the second session and wasrewarded with the prized wicket of Indian captain KohliFive minutes before the tea Vijay tried to cut ashortish delivery from legbreak bowler Sodhi but managed afaint edge taken by stumper BJ Watling Vijay was mostly patient from one end treating the balls on meritAfter his Caribbean sojourn was marred by injury and theonly Test match he got a chance to bat didnt go well it wasa good opportunity for the Tamil Nadu opener who would ruethe chance of having missed out on a big score after gettingsetNew Zealand began the third session with Sodhi and MarkCraig operating in tandem Rohit punished Sodhi with a sixover the deep midwicket that raised Indias 200 and followedit up with a boundary on the offsideCraig 159 though saw the back of Rahane 18 off 36getting him caught by Tom Latham at forward short legSpin allrounder Ashwin turned to be a solid support forRohit Sharma who himself survived a confident leg beforeappeal from CraigAshwin was comfortable playing both pacers and spinnersdriving elegantly before being undone by BoultEach and every Kiwi bowler was among wicketshighlighting a team effort led by SantnerSantner was the only bowler who got success in theopening session with Rahul who looked fluent during his 32off 39 balls before being caught behind The delivery was aquicker one which turned a shade taking a faint edge ofRahuls batVijay and Pujara continued in their nonchalant way in thepostlunch session untroubled by the Kiwi bowlersVijay guided Boult to third man with a late cut to touch49 and survived a leg before appeal off Sodhi before reachinghis fifty with a single off Boult in the next over the 41stof the inningsPujara also completed his halfcentury by driving Sodhistraight after getting a couple off the same bowlerVijay preferred to play his shots from the backfootagainst both Sodhi or Boult while Pujara was fantastic withhis nimble footworkWith nothing working for the Kiwis New Zealand captainKane Williamson tried to attack more by employing two closeinfielders a slip and a forward shortleg man when SantneroperatedWagner did get a bit of reverse swing but the wellsetIndian batsmen dealt with it without fussSantner provided the breakthrough again but it was a softdismissal as Pujara committed to a shot with the ball stoppingon him offering a simple return catchIt was the kind of mistake Kiwis were hoping for andPujara provided them the windowPujaras 62 his eighth Test halfcentury came off 109balls with eight shots to the fenceIn came Kohli to rapturous chants of his name and got tobusiness straightaway cutting a widish Santner ball to theboundary and then pulled Wagner for another legside boundaryHowever the Indian captain lasted only 10 balls Wagnerbanged one short which Kohli miscued a pull and found outSodhi who was specifically kept for that shotVijay was patient in his approach and helped himselfwith four shots the fence while Pujara was swift and scored ata decent pace hitting five boundariesEarlier Rahul made a cracking start hitting two crispboundaries off paceman Boult in the very first overWagner kept banging it short to test the Indian openerswhile Boult preferred fullish lengthRahul was confident and comfortable at the crease andnever looked like troubled by either of the two fast bowlersKiwi skipper introduced Santner in the eighth over andcontinued with Wagner from one end Rahul swept the leftarmspinner for a six but the Kiwi bowler exacted his revenge byhaving the young Indian batsmen caught behind in the nextoverSantner posed questions for the Indian batsmen whohandled Craig comparatively easily Both the spinners flightedthe ball but it being a firstday pitch there was not muchpurchase from it