BOULT JOLT!
India look down the barrel after top-order fail to deliver, again
The Indian batsmen, caught between overcautiousness and impetuosity, produced yet another inept batting performance to put New Zealand firmly on the driver's seat at the end of third day's play in the first Test here on Sunday.
At stumps, India reached 144 for 4 in their second innings as the top-order found Trent Boult's (3/27 in 16 overs) high-quality swing bowling too hot to handle.
India now trail New Zealand by 39 runs going into fourth day, which could well be the final day of this game unless Ajinkya Rahane (25 batting, 67 balls) and Hanuma Vihari (15 batting, 70 balls) show the art of survival that was distinctly lacking in some of the other toporder batsmen.
Asked what kind of total can be defended in the fourth innings, senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin remained non-committal.
"I know to keep it simple and say this is defendable and this is not, (it) is pretty much how you would want me to present it, but it's too much -like six sessions to go and we are not even at a stage where we can say what is a good score to defend," he said.
There is still something there in the Basin Reserve pitch, reckoned Ashwin.
"We have to take every ball at a time to be honest because there is still enough in the surface. We are not yet in a stage of the game from our perspective where we can look at it very far."
After New Zealand's tail wagged big time to post a good first innings total of 348, the deficit of 183 understandably put India under severe pressure.
If Cheteshwar Pujara (11 off 81 balls) paid for his ultra-defensive mindset shouldering arms to an in-dipper, skipper Virat Kohli's (19 off 43 balls) split-second indiscretion became his undoing as he went for a needless pull-shot to a well-disguised short ball.