While Williamson smashed three fours and two sixes during the course of his 13th Test fifty, McCullum hit 10 boundaries en-route to his 29th Test half-century.
Williamson and McCullum led the Kiwi fightback with an unbeaten 120-plus partnership after losing three wickets in the first session.
Indian bowlers could not capitalise in the post lunch session as the Kiwi duo batted sensibly and scored quick runs to cross 100-run mark.
Earlier, Indian speedsters made perfect use of the overcast conditions, working up good pace and bounce, as New Zealand were reduced to 54 for three at lunch.
Bad light and a drizzle delayed the start of the game by 15 minutes and India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni called the toss correctly for the sixth time in a row on this tour, opting to bowl first on a green Eden Park pitch with good amount of moisture under the surface.
Ishant Sharma justified his inclusion into the side after a disastrous ODI series, picking up key wickets of Hamish Rutherford (6) and Ross Taylor (1) in quick succession to give the visitors an upper hand on a windy and cloudy morning.
Ishant conceded just eight runs in his opening spell as the Black Caps' top-order was left in complete disarray.
Zaheer Khan too showed his experience at this format of the game, trapping other opener Peter Fulton (13) plumb in front of the wicket.
Mohammed Shami (0-10), who opened the bowling for the visitors, came up with an excellent spell without getting any reward, as the New Zealand batsmen did not get any breathing space.
Kane Williamson (22 batting) and skipper Brendon McCullum (5 batting) were unbeaten at the break, with Ravindra Jadeja (0-4) bowling just the one over.
India went with the same playing XI that featured in their last Test in South Africa, including left-arm spinner Jadeja ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant still the preferred choice ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Similarly, the hosts did not make any changes either to their eleven that played West Indies in Hamilton.
Having conceded the ODI series 0-4, Team India looked determined to retain their No. 2 ranking in this format of the game as they began their campaign in the two-match Test series on a perfect note.
Shami and Zaheer bowled at lively pace and beat the openers on more than a couple of occasions. In fact, Fulton was very lucky to survive as long as he did, continuously troubled by all Indian bowlers.
Fulton should have gone back, first on the seventh ball of the innings, with Zaheer inducing an edge but Shikhar Dhawan dove in front of second slip and spilled the chance.
Fulton was on one at that time, and 11 runs later, he got another life when umpire Richard Kettleborough did not raise his finger on a plumb LBW decision in the ninth over bowled by Shami.
He was on 12 at that time and was eventually gone for 13, when Zaheer finally trapped him in the 13th over.
At the other end, Rutherford was brilliantly set up by Ishant in the 10th over earlier, with the batsman fishing outside the off-stump on more than one occasion.
After four balls, the bowler finally found an edge as Ajinkya Rahane completed a superb diving catch at gully.
That wasn't the end of New Zealand's woes, with Taylor (3) looking to play his shots from the very beginning, despite a difficult pitch. It did not pay off, as he drove Ishant on-the-up and Jadeja completed a stunning catch at short mid-off, leaving the Kiwis reeling at 30 for three.
Williamson and McCullum then saw off the 25 minutes before lunch without any further loss, with the 50-run mark of the innings coming in the penultimate over of the session bowled by Jadeja.
0 comments:
Post a Comment