India's tail showed an extraordinary performance on the first day of the third and deciding Test against New Zealand here Friday to ensure the tourists reached a respectable 375 for nine at stumps.
By stumps, Sachin Tendulkar's 62 — his 53rd Test half-century & 95th score over 50— Harbhajan Singh's defiant 60, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 52 and Virender Sehwag's 48 were India's highest scores.
India leads the three-test series 1-0 after winning the first test at Hamilton by 10 wickets and the second Test at Napier was drawn. The visitors are trying to win their first series in New Zealand since 1968.
India picked up the pace in the final session, adding 185 runs for the loss of four wickets, with the tailenders riding their luck in an aggressive show with the bat during the final hour.
Harbhajan finished with the second top score of 60 from 78 balls and importantly put on 79 runs with Dhoni (52), who was returning from a back injury that kept him out of the team in the drawn second Test.
Tendulkar made a 90-run partnership for the third wicket with Rahul Dravid (35), while Sehwag shared a 73-run opening stand with Gautam Gambhir (23) and Dhoni and Harbhajan added 79 for the seventh wicket.
The most damaging stands from New Zealand's point of view were those between Dhoni and Harbhajan, which prevents its strong second-session comeback, and also the late partnership involving Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan.
In a day of fluctuating fortunes, New Zealand's bowlers fought hard on a batting-friendly pitch as captain Daniel Vettori gambled to bowl first. New Zealand felt its best chance of leveling the series would come from bowling first and placing India under pressure. Seven of the last 10 teams to win the toss at the Basin Reserve have bowled and six of the last 10 tests at the ground have been won by the team that fielded first.
India got off to a flying start through a quickfire 48 from Virender Sehwag with typical smashing shots at the top of India's order as the tourists raced to 50 in just 41 minutes and reached 68 by the end of the first hour. Sehwag was 48 and India was 73 without loss in the first 15 overs when he edged a catch to wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum off Iain O'Brien in the 16th over.
Gambhir fell lbw to James Franklin only nine balls later to leave India at 75-2.
Tendulkar and Dravid then restored the innings in a partnership which again seemed to create the dominance of bat over ball. Tendulkar played with typical fluency and class, reaching his half century from 67 balls with a square cut four off O'Brien.He made 62 runs with 11 boundaries.
Tendulkar was dismissed just 10 runs short of he and Dravid's 17th century partnership in tests — it would have surpassed the record 16 century stands shared by Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes for the West Indies and Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting for Australia.
Tendulkar's dismissal provided a mini collapse which saw three wickets fall for 17 runs in the next 8.4 overs. V.V.S. Laxman was out for four and Yuvraj Singh for nine as India slipped from 165-2 to 182-5.
Dravid followed with the total at 204 after batting 182 minutes for his 35, attempting again to anchor the innings. He mistimed a pull shot to Franklin at square leg to leave India six down.
When the sixth wicket fell shortly after tea with barely 200 runs on the board, it appeared the gamble had paid off.
Opening bowler Chris Martin bowled hard all day to finish the best of the New Zealand attack with figures of three for 95 from 24 overs, while Tim Southee and Iain O'Brien took two wickets each.
Martin was unlucky 24 runs later when Martin Guptill put down a difficult but ultimately costly chance at gully when Harbhajan was on 14.
India's last-wicket pair of Ishant Sharma (15) and Munaf Patel (14) also defied New Zealand by adding 28 in an unbroken stand before stumps.
Scoreboard
India 1st innings
G. Gambhir lbw Franklin 23
V. Sehwag c McCullum b O'Brien 48
R. Dravid c Franklin b Martin 35
S. Tendulkar c McCullum b Martin 62
V. Laxman c McIntosh b Southee 4
Y. Singh lbw Ryder 9
M.S. Dhoni c O'Brien b Southee 52
H. Singh c Vettori b Martin 60
Z. Khan c McCullum b O'Brien 33
I. Sharma not out 15
M. Patel not out 14
Extras b2, lb8, w3, nb7 20
Total for 9 wkts 375
Fall of wkts 1-73, 2-75, 3-165, 4-173, 5-182, 6-204, 7-283, 8-315, 9-347
Bowling
Martin 24-3-95-3, Southee 18-1-94-2, O'Brien 21-3-88-2, Franklin 14-4-38-1, Vettori 9-1-47-0, Ryder 4-2-3-1
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