Kanpur: India finished day three of the first Test against New Zealand at the Green Park Stadium in pole position. At stumps, India are 14/1, leading by 63 runs after Axar Patel picked his fifth five-wicket haul in just seven innings in Test cricket to bowl out New Zealand for 296.
Starting off the second innings with a 49-run lead, India lost their first wicket as Shubman Gill was clean bowled by an incoming delivery from Kyle Jamieson, hitting the top of off-stump. The dismissal also made Jamieson the fastest New Zealand pacer to reach 50 Test wickets in nine innings, breaking former speedster Shane Bo’d’s record which, he had achieved in 12 innings. Cheteshwar Pujara got some boundaries while Mayank Agarwal was cautious in taking India to safety till stumps were called.
Earlier, Patel continued the momentum he got from picking three wickets in the second session, sneaking one past Tom Blun’ell’s defence with low bounce. He then completed his fifth five-wicket haul in Test cricket by surprising Tim Southee with an angled-in delivery, which spun past the bat to leave the stumps shattered.
Kyle Jamieson, who showed some resistance in his 75-ball stay, miscued a slog to Patel at deep mid-wicket off Ashwin in the 139th over. Four overs later, the off-spinner had William Somerville clean bowled to wrap up New Z’aland’s innings.
Brief scores: India 345 and 14/1 in five overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 9 not out, Kyle Jamieson 1/8) against New Zealand 296 in 142.3 overs (Tom Latham 95, Will Young 89, Axar Patel 5/62, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/82), lead by 63 runs.
