Xtra Time Web Desk: Debutant Shreyas Iyer displayed an ice-cool temperament under pressure as he and Wriddhiman Saha (61*) put India in a strong position ahead of the final day of the first test at Kanpur on Sunday. Iyer scored a brilliant 65, following up his maiden test ton in the first innings while Saha remained not out on 61*. India declared their second innings on 234/7, giving them a lead of 283 runs. New Zealand at stumps is 4/1, losing opener Will Young given leg before to Ravichandran Ashwin. The Kiwi opener will feel disappointed as he was late in taking the review by a few seconds. The replayed showed the ball was clearly missing the leg stump.
With that scalp, Ashwin became the joint third-highest wicket-taker in Indian cricket with Harbhajan Singh (417 wickets).
There ware useful contributions from Ravichandran Ashwin (32) and Axar Patel (28 not out) with the later involved in a valuable 67-run eighth-wicket stand with Saha to slowly take the match out of the Black Caps’ grasp.
It will now depend on how much time it takes for India’s spin troika to roll over New Zealand, whose openers showed a lot of gumption on the second afternoon and third morning.
If the morning belonged to New Zealand’s bowlers, who decided to prolong Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane’s bad patch, the afternoon was Iyer’s time under the sun while Saha did his bit, reaching his sixth half-century in the final session of the day. This is certainly an innings that will give Saha’s Test career a new lease of life.
Stand in captain Ajinkya Rahane (4) and Cheteshwar Pujara (22) failed for the second time in the match.