With India winning the T20I series and New Zealand bagging the ODI series, it was time for the two teams to don their whites for the start of the 1st Test in Wellington on Friday.
Electing to field first, hosts New Zealand made early inroads with Tim Southee sending Prithvi Shaw back in the fifth over. Shaw made an aggressive start but was dismissed for 16 off 18 balls.
Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara then proceeded to display some classic Test match batting to see off the threat from the Kiwis’ bowling mainstays Southee and Trent Boult.
After 10 overs, India looked fairly solid at 31/1.
Once debutant Kyle Jamieson (in the team as a replacement for Neil Wagner who is on paternity leave) was introduced into the attack, India’s batting started looking shaky.
The 6 feet 8 inch tall bowler began by dismissing Pujara, out for 11 off 42 balls.
He followed that up with the massive wicket of Indian skipper Virat Kohli (2 off 7 balls) in his next over, with Ross Taylor just about holding on to the ball in the slips.
India 40/3 in 17.5 overs.
Ajinkya Rahane and Agarwal began trying to stitch together some kind of a partnership and India went into lunch without losing any more wickets.
Boult got into action after the break and made an almost immediate impact with the wicket of the well set Agarwal (34 off 84 balls).
A few overs later Jamieson struck for his third wicket of the day, dismissing Hanuma Vihari (7 off 20 balls). India reeling at 101/5.
Rahane and Rishabh Pant started doing damage control with some steady and slow batting. In fact Rahane, who had scored his first 17 runs off 28 balls, went to tea having made 38 off 122 balls.
Play did not restart after tea due to rain, resulting in the calling of early stumps with India at 122/5.
