So the much anticipated Test series began in New Zealand. Many firsts for this series. First for India without Anil Kumble. First overseas Test series as captain for MS. And stuff like that. And the scoreline would suggest that it was a balanced day for both the teams given the fact that Indians dominated the first session, Kiwis the second and it was kinda half half in the 3rd. 1.5 – 1.5. But a further read into the batting lineup India has and the bowling lineup Kiwis have, India might still have a slight edge over the Kiwis. And that’s a refreshing change over long time. Indians have been a slow starter lot and more so on the foreign tour. England 07, Australia 07 and SL 07 is a prime bunch of the series which proves the same fact, if we decide not to go too past for the confirmation.
With that kind of history, it was refreshing to see Kiwis at 6/60 whereas we were used to see Indians having that kind of scoreline in earlier tours even with Fab Four around. Today it was a bold decision by MS to bowl first given the overcast conditions and the new ball attack he has. And it did pay off in the first session at least when India had Kiwis on the mat. It was left to Danny boy and wild child to recover from the lump and go to a respectable score of 279. 186 of those runs were added by this 2, which they say is a new record for the bilateral series between this 2 sides. Danny boy now averages 41 in no 8 and now is the best bat of the team besides being the skipper and best bowler too with 286 wkts. Jesse had a memorable debut with polished 102 against a team he is fast learning to torment.
India’s track record of giving a unknown player to emerge star against it just doesn’t go away. Ryder is the latest in that list. Dravid equalized the record for most catches and very soon he would overcome it. He should go on to pocket 200 catches provided his bat still milks the runs. Zaheer was left 1 wkt short of 200. And Tendulkar became the 2nd highest Test player leaving Allan Border behind. He would go on till 159 at the end of the series. Hadn’t he missed the 11 Tests for injury, today he would have became the highest test playing player with 168 alongside Tugga.
Getting in Munaf was a bold choice and though he did take 3 wkts, his criticism won’t fade away unless he doesn’t get over his lax attitude.
It was a refreshing change from the boring Test cricket we saw in Caribbean and Pakistan. Perhaps Sri Lanka needs to see how Test match is being played. Thank GOD there were no long batting sessions. I bet India won’t look forward to play slow and boring cricket tomorrow. India should look forward to bat for 4 more sessions and score around 400-450 runs to avoid batting long in the 4th innings. Sehwag and Danny boy would be the key in tomorrow’s first session.
