Courtesy: BCCI
On Friday, October 25, the day two of the second Test match, New Zealand gained complete control of the game after taking a 301-run lead over the hosts India at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune. In their second innings, New Zealand reached 198/5 at the close of play on day two after bundling out the highly accomplished Indian batting lineup for just 156 runs in their first innings with Mitchell Santner taking seven wickets.
At the start of day two of the second Test match, India resumed their batting innings from the overnight score of 16/1 after they had bowled out New Zealand for 259 runs yesterday. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill stitched together a 49-run partnership for the second wicket, to put India in a comfortable position before all hell broke loose as Mitchell Santner started to wreak havoc with his left-arm finger spin bowling.
After Jaiswal and Gill were dismissed in the 30s, India’s middle to lower order fell away drastically in front of the New Zealand spinners with only Ravindra Jadeja top scoring for them with his 38 off 46, which included three fours and two maximums. With India conceding a big first innings lead of 103 runs on a wearing pitch at the MCA Stadium in Pune, the batting lineup of New Zealand consolidated the advantage with their captain Tom Latham scoring 86 off 133 with 10 fours.
The batters at the other end for New Zealand weren’t quite able to bat quite like their captain, but they stayed at the crease long enough to build decent partnerships, to help their team get into a very strong position at the close of play on day two. Washington Sundar has been the only shining light for India in the Pune Test with his 11 wickets out of 15 taken by the team thus far.
India will be needing some inspired performances from their bowlers and the batters on day three of the second Test match, to have any chance of turning a dire situation around.
