India dismiss New Zealand for 204, lead by 112 in Kolkata

In the end, Jeetan Patel extended New Zealand’s total to 204 with his 47-run cameo and gave India a lead of 112 runs.

Filling in for an ill Kane Williamson, Taylor said conditions in Kolkata had been challenging but the response from New Zealand’s bowlers was encouraging with Trent Boult, Matt Henry and Mitchell Santner picking up three wickets each in the second innings.

“It’s not a typical Calcutta wicket”, Rohit said of the challenges of batting there.

But from then on he did not have any trouble as he was seen playing forward, even as the ball had the odd bounce and was coming slow on a few occasions.

Cheteshwar Pujara finished as the highest impact batsman.

Shikhar Dhawan (17), who survived a brutal opening spell before lunch from Boult when he was twice struck on his left hand, was out leg before to the left-arm paceman. The star batsman was trapped lbw. They were No.1 for a short period in January 2016, after England won in South Africa, before Australia displaced them with a 2-0 series win in New Zealand.

Preferring the off-side, Saha hit seven fours and two sixes enroute to his half-century which he scored in 109 minutes. This was also the 12th Test on the trot that India had gone without defeat, a run that has brought nine victories and three draws across Sri Lanka, India and the West Indies.

Ashwin got Latham on a well-crafted off-spinner that pitched and spun away from the left-hander, who was caught behind. The uneven bounce was not lost on the Kiwis, who landed some strong blows on the Indian batting line-up on yet another energy-sapping day under the Kolkata sky.

New Zealand nearly need to play their normal game – there is next to no point trying to defend it out because it simply won’t happen – many have tried and failed. It was nice to get him out eventually and we bowled very nicely to him to not let him cash in too nicely.

He said they would tick off their goals of trying to bat for half a session, then a session.

Shami, Jadeja and Ashwin scalped three wickets each while Bhuvneshwar, after his five-wicket haul in first innings, chipped in with a wicket. The two put on an invaluable partnership of 36 runs for the ninth wicket, before Neil Wagner (1/45) dismissed Kumar to pick up his 99th Test wicket. Mumbaikar Rohit showed exemplary grit as he earlier combined with skipper Virat Kohli (45, 65 b, 7×4) for a 48-run fifth-wicket partnership at a time India were tottering at 43 for 4 in the post-lunch session with the Kiwi pacers causing havoc, exploiting the uneven bounce on the wicket.

For the second straight match, India find themselves in a dominant position where they nearly can’t lose the Test with two days to play against New Zealand who are having a woeful tour thus far.