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 Ahmedabad,
Oct 9: A devastating opening spell by Zaheer Khan left New Zealand
tottering at 41 for 3 in response to India's first innings score of
500 for five declared built around a career-best 222 by 'The Wall'
Rahul Dravid here today. The left-arm seamer's dream spell placed
India firmly in the driver's seat on the second day of the first
cricket Test against New Zealand. Dravid's monumental innings was
supplemented by an unbeaten 100 by captain Sourav Ganguly.
In a fiery opening
spell, Zaheer Khan uprooted the off-stumps of opener Mark Richardson
and skipper Stephen Fleming besides getting rid of Lou Vincent to
help India tighten the noose around the Kiwis. Having declared their
innings one hour into the final session, the Indians were looking
for early breakthroughs and Zaheer provided just that with his
incisive spell which read 7-1-16-3. India, playing without veteran
speedster Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra, were relying heavily on
Zaheer Khan to deliver the goods and he did not disappoint.
Bowling on a wicket
devoid of life, Zaheer Khan worked up intelligent variations in
length to bamboozle the Kiwi openers, already under pressure as
Dravid and Ganguly and had heaped runs at will in the post-lunch
session to make possible an early declaration. Richardson (6), who
scored a century against India 'A' at Visakhapatnam, was the first
to go when he played on a Zaheer inswinger only to see his off-stump
uprooted in spectacular fashion with the total reading 11.
The other Kiwi
opener Vincent (7) departed five runs later when baby-faced Parthiv
Patel took a brilliant one-handed catch off Zaheer in the ninth
over. The Indians, who had won the toss and elected to bat, had all
the reasons to celebrate when danger man Fleming (1) saw to his
disbelief his off-stump cartwheeling by the effect of a Zaheer Khan
inswinger. Speedster L Balaji, the other player to make his debut
for India in this Test besides opener Akash Chopra, managed to keep
his cool amidst the havoc created by Zaheer and had returned decent
figures of 5-2-9-0 by close.
 The
Kiwis, who have come here with hopes of winning their first ever
Test series on Indian soil, will have to put their thinking caps on
to negotiate the Indian attack on the morrow and counter the huge
total posted by the hosts. The credit for giving India the cushion
of a good first innings total would go to Dravid who hammered out
important partnerships after anchoring to safety his team which
suffered mid-innings setbacks yesterday, losing debutant opener
Akash Chopra and Sachin Tendulkar in quick succession.
Dravid, who scored
his third double century today, was finally dismissed for 222, his
career-best Test score, when he edged a Jacob Oram delivery to offer
a simple catch to wicketkeeper Robbie Hart. His marathon 387-ball
knock, including 28 fours and one six, improved his previous best of
217 scored against England at the Oval last summer. Dravid's 182-run
stand with Ganguly was also India's highest fifth wicket partnership
against the Kiwis. The previous best partnership for the fifth
wicket was of 127 runs between Vijay Manjrekar and G S Ramchand in
1955-56. Ganguly was also quite impressive as he built on a
tentative start to score a confidence-boosting century which boasted
of eight fours and three sixes.
After Dravid's
dismissal, Ganguly added another 54 runs with Parthiv Patel who
delighted the home crowd with a cameo knock of 29 scored off just 24
balls. The youngest player in the Indian squad, Parthiv showed
remarkable maturity in the way he executed his five boundaries
before the declaration brought an end to his fireworks. Earlier,
there was some drama when Ganguly was warned twice by the umpires
for running on the pitch before being penalised two runs for the
offence. Ganguly, who came to the wicket at the fall of V V S Laxman
(62) in the morning when India resumed at 249 for three, was also
cautioned by Rudy Koertzen in the final session of play for a
similar offence.
The International
Cricket Council rules treat running on the pitch as unfair play and
specify that runs from a second infringement could be deducted from
the batsman's score. India, who were guilty of scoring at a
painfully slow rate till lunch today, stepped up the scoring rate
after the break to add 118 runs without losing a wicket in the
second session. The session saw the captain and his deputy break the
shackles to reach important personal milestones en route to a
healthy total on the board. Fleming, who had been successful in
keeping the stroke-loving Indian batsmen in check till the lunch
session, had little answer for the rampaging duo, determined to step
on the gas and ensure the hosts did not let go the initiative. Scorecard
(Agencies)
Published: Wednesday, October
09, 2003
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