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 Twenty-two wickets fell in a bizarre day’s play on a seamer’s dream wicket in the second cricket Test between India and New Zealand here today, at the end of which the match was tantalisingly poised. After being shot out for 99 in their first innings, the Indians gave back a dose of their own medicine to the home side by bundling them out for 94, thanks to a career-best five for 29 by left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan. Struggling again on a difficult wicket which however had eased a little on the third day, the Indians managed to reach 154 in their second innings with Rahul Dravid once again playing well for a solid 39, Sachin Tendulkar cracking a crisp 32 and Virender Sehwag hitting a quickfire 25. Needing 160 to win the match and the two-Test series, the New Zealanders hung on grimly till the end of the extended day's play to make 24 without loss. An easy dropped catch of Lou Vincent by Sanjay Bangar off the bowling of Tinu Yohannan helped the home team's cause, but it is still anybody's game.
 The Indian first innings lasted just seven balls this morning, as the last two wickets fell for the addition of seven runs to the overnight score of 92 for eight. The young Parthiv Patel, who had done well to hang in for 44 balls yesterday, was out to the first delivery he faced today, caught by wicketkeeper Robbie Hart off Jacob Oram for his overnight eight. Ashish Nehra pulled Shane Bond for a six before edging the next delivery to first slip for a good catch to Stephen Fleming. The Indians had been bowled out for their third consecutive low score on this tour, but the bowlers responded very well to the challenge this time, proving their effectiveness on a helpful pitch. New Zealand first innings lasted just 38.2 overs, exactly the same as the Indian first innings, and the visitors were back on the crease midway into the second session.
 In between, Zaheer Khan bowled an inspiring spell to torment the New Zealand batting and rubbish Fleming's claims yesterday that his batsmen were probably better equipped to handle the seaming conditions. Zaheer Khan, who had returned his first five-wicket haul in the Wellington Test, struck early to dismiss opener Lou Vincent when New Zealand had scored only seven runs and then claimed the wickets of Mark Richardson (13), Fleming (21), Hart (3) and Daniel Vettori (6) to grab his career-best haul. The 32-run partnership for the second wicket between Richardson and Fleming was the best that New Zealand could muster as wickets fell at regular intervals, with Nehra and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh also chipping in with two scalps each. New Zealand's first innings total of 94 was their lowest against India, a decrease of six runs in their previous low of 100 posted in Wellington in 1980-81.
 When India came out to bat for the second time, skipper Sourav Ganguly took a gamble by sending Patel to open the innings with Bangar with a clear direction to hang in at the wicket for as long as possible and see off the new ball. But the two gutsy cricketers proved unequal to the task and departed early, leaving India in trouble once again at 8 for 2 in the sixth over. Dravid and Tendulkar took the score to 40 for two at tea and at that stage, it seemed India were headed towards stability. But the duo could add just 17 more runs to their third-wicket stand before Tendulkar played a Daryl Tuffey delivery on to his stumps after hitting five fours in his 48-ball knock. Ganguly failed for the fourth time in as many innings, getting out in a familiar fashion behind the wickets. He edged a Jacob Oram delivery to be caught by wicketkeeper Hart for 5.
First innings top-scorer V V S Laxman was done in by a beautiful ball from Nathan Astle that took away his off-stump. Laxman managed only four runs but added a valuable 21 in association with Dravid for the fifth wicket. Sehwag, coming at number seven after exchanging places with Patel, tried to back his natural instincts and played attacking shots to gather 25 runs from just 18 balls. He struck four boundaries, three against Bond in an over, before his short 15-minute stay at the crease came to an end. He was caught by Tuffey while attempting another big shot against Bond. All this while, Dravid was holding forte at the other end, slowly but surely, accumulating his runs and trying to provide the stability that the Indian innings desperately needed.
 But with the last of the recognised batsmen out, Dravid tried to step up the scoring. He chased a wide delivery from Oram, trying to hit it over the point region but was not successful and was caught by substitute Michael Mason. His patient 99-ball knock included six hits to the fence. Harbhajan Singh once again made an useful contribution, making 18 runs before being the ninth batsman out. Nehra scored ten runs while Yohannan remained unbeaten on eight. Realising that the key to the successful chase would be to protect their wickets, New Zealand openers stubbornly held on to their ends, scoring only 24 runs from 15 overs bowled in their second innings. Richardson was batting on 10 and Vincent on four. The home team needs 136 more runs for a 2-0 series victory with two full days remaining in this Test.
Scorecard
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