India began proceedings on Day 3 of the 1st Test against New Zealand in Wellington with a wicket off the very first ball of the morning – Jasprit Bumrah dismissing BJ Watling for 14 off 30 balls.
When a few overs later Tim Southee departed courtesy Ishant Sharma, the Indian team were looking determined and chirpy in the field, having reduced the Kiwis to seven down and trailing only by 60 runs.
But that’s when the hosts began a mini fightback of sorts. Having picked up debut bowling figures of 4 for 39 in the first innings, the six feet 8 inches tall Kyle Jamieson stepped up with the bat and made a handy 44 off 45 balls before being dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin.
With contributions from Colin de Grandhomme (43 off 74 balls) and Trent Boult (38 off 24 balls), New Zealand managed to add 123 runs for their last three wickets.
The hosts were eventually bowled out for 348, giving them a lead of 183 with Ishant picking up a five wicket haul.
India’s innings didn’t begin particularly well with Prithvi Shaw (14 off 30 balls) falling early.
From there on Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara stuck in – the scoring rate slowed quite a bit but at least no wickets were lost either.
Agarwal managed a half century before tea but India also lost the wicket of Pujara, dismissed for 11 runs off 81 balls.
Following the tea break, the Kiwi bowlers went hard at the Indian batsmen, peppering them with bouncers.
Agarwal nicked one soon after the break, falling for 58 off 99 balls.
Boult came in and got the big wicket of Indian skipper Virat Kohli (19 off 43 balls) soon after.
Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari however made sure that no more wickets fell on the day as they saw out 19.4 overs till stumps.
India will go into Day 4 at 144/4, trailing by 39 runs.