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It almost looked like a seamless transition for Indian cricket. When Gautam Gambhir nicked one to the keeper, in came Cheteshwar Pujara, instead of Rahul Dravid, and 16 years of memories flooded the mind. When Sachin Tendulkar was bowled comprehensively, Virat Kohli walked in place of VVS Laxman – the other stalwart who has vaporized into folklore now. Together, both Pujara and Kohli batted with the calm of Dravid and Laxman – not giving a moment of anguish to the fans that had surprisingly came out in great numbers on a weekday.
From the moment MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first, it was clear that without a miraculous performance by the ball early on, New Zealand were always going to play the chasing game. Sehwag and Gambhir started the proceedings in the usual sub-continent manner, driving, flicking and quickly running between the wickets. Sehwag waited, cut, edged and flicked for fours before bringing up India’s highest opening stand in 9 innings when India reached 38 without loss.
Gautam Gambhir at the other end looked a bit jittery early on but looked ominous for better scores in whites when he drove one full delivery outside off stump and sent it caressing to the boundary. 5 balls later though, his inability to keep himself from poking at a good length delivery outside off led to his dismissal as he was caught off a faint nick by the New Zealand keeper. One day, which is fast approaching, Gambhir will have to be honest about this aspect of his batting which gives him such an advantage in limited formats, but fails miserably in the Tests.
Despite a wicket down, the excitement in the air was palpable. So much talk about India’s next number 3 had increased the chatter ahead of the tie as to which one of Pujara and Kohli would be more suited to the position. The Indian think tank decided it was the lesser experienced Pujara who would make a suitable number 3 ahead of the man in form Virat Kohli.
At the other end, fortune struck twice in a Chris Martin over when Sehwag almost gave a replay of his dismissal against Australia in last year’s World Cup Quarter-Final. This time though, Martin’s effort ball fell just out of reach of Flynn behind square leg. Two balls later, Sehwag again got lucky when an inswinger kissed his inside edge and teased past the keeper for four, even as the umpire signaled a bye. Sehwag was let off once again on 35 when an outside edge off Doug Bracewell neatly bisected the keeper and Ross Taylor at 1st slip and raced away to the boundary. Though it was the keeper who ought to have gone for it, the New Zealand captain would look back on it as one of the glaring moments of a horrid day for him.
Sehwag failed to capitalize on the good fortune and as the phrase goes – “lived by the sword, and died by it.” Bracewell’s 2 overs had yielded 24, courtesy Sehwag. The 3rd ball of his 3rd over, he kept short but this time didn’t give enough width as the ball swung in to deny Sehwag any room to cut. But cut he did and a thick edge flew fast at 2nd slip where Guptill held on to send the second Indian opener back to pavilion.
Sachin Tendulkar walked in to the customary round of applause from the crowd but was circumspect, understandably so since this was his first international outing in more than 3 months. His 41 ball 12 at the stroke of lunch denied New Zealand any further opening. Meanwhile, Pujara had settled in at the other end as he reached to 12 off 32 deliveries at Lunch.
The start of the 2nd session saw further entrenchment for Indian batsmen as New Zealand tightened the screws on scoring. But Cheteshwar Pujara’s class was on display as he showed brilliant judgment and cut and pulled whenever New Zealand erred by bowling wide or too short. Trent Boult was brought into the attack and he delivered his best over of the day when he brought the ball back repeatedly into the right-hander. The first delivery was tucked away on the on-side by Tendulkar, the second left him and caught the Little Master unawares. The third ball was met with a brilliant clip but stopped by McCullum with equal force. Tendulkar was saved by an inside edge onto the pads on the fourth delivery, bowled at lower 130s. The fifth one, bowled at 138 kmph cleaned him up comprehensively as Tendulkar was late in reacting to one coming back in and shattered into the top of middle stump. Despite watching your favorite batsman getting bowled, it was a joy to watch Boult bowl that over – a perfect example of the rewarding experience that Test cricket is. The build up and the climax are exemplified by the timescale they are performed on. It’s sluggish, but hits you flush once you are accustomed to it.
Tendulkar’s dismissal brought Virat Kohli to the middle. India was 125-3 and there was no Dravid, and no Laxman. What transpired for the next 33.2 overs however waved away any clouds of doubts over the Indian team’s future, at least for now. Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli gathered 125 runs for the 4th wicket in a display of some brilliant batting on a friendly surface. Ross Taylor made the biggest mistake of the day by holding back his seamers and giving off-spinner Jeetan Patel and allrounder James Franklin a go at the young pair. Despite the class shown by both the youngsters on the occasion, Taylor shares the blame for not going all guns blazing when the Indians were at their most vulnerable. Kohli cut anything wide and drove anything pitched up whereas Pujara played a more patient knock where nothing bad left unpunished off his blade. The fact that each of his strokes was so measured and perfect, it was hard to not remember the giant whose place he was taking. But more than any of his strokes, the aspect of his batting which shone out the brightest was his ability to wait patiently.
Pujara reached 49 off 113 balls at the end of 49th over. Kohli faced the next 2 overs as he calmly took singles off the last ball. Pujara faced the next delivery after 12 balls and left it safely. The next four deliveries, slow, angling across, outside off – all either softly defended, or safely left alone. Franklin finally gave him the pace and width off the last delivery and Pujara was more than happy to slice it wide of backward point to bring up his half-century. Patience and class, was written all over it.
Doug Bracewell’s mystery cramps after bowling just 10 overs further made things difficult for New Zealand. When Kohli edged one from Patel past Taylor at 1st slip to reach his half-century, India celebrated the pair in the middle, liking them to the legends that held those positions till only a few months back. But more sensible minds will only see this as the laying of foundation on which those mighty walls will be remade years later.
Virat Kohli displayed a chink in his armor when he failed to curb his adrenaline to leave one from Chris Martin which bounced more than expected. He drove full of confidence, and the edge was caught at slips by Guptill. More than anything, Virat Kohli’s dismissal justified sending in the more patient Pujara ahead of Kohli, who hates subduing his attacking instincts. This works in his favor in ODIs where a continuous nudge down the ground for a single or two helps release that pressure inside him to be on the top. But for bigger innings in Tests, he’ll need more of that Jedi mental toughness which Pujara seems to have in abundance. Of course, this is just an analysis of a day’s play and a season with 10 Tests scheduled, will reveal much more.
Pujara continued unhindered at the other end and displayed that superb mental calmness again when he was in the dreaded 90s. For any batsman in 90s for the first time in International cricket, it’s a tough ask not to feel jittery. Pujara however, was exemplary when he was at the doorstep of his maiden hundred. He waited; waited, and waited some more till a wide delivery was presented by Martin and calmly sliced it to the third-man region to reach 99. With 8 fielders inside the ring to save the single, he flicked behind to run a single and complete his maiden Test hundred. He smiled and hugged his partner, acknowledged the crowd and smiled some more. It was an innings worth cherishing, for it was almost chanceless and displayed the perfect ammunition required for a long stay at the highest level of cricket – patience and technique.
Suresh Raina, at number 6, failed to make any noteworthy contribution to the innings and was caught down the leg side smartly by van Wyk when he failed to flick a loose delivery past his leg stump by Jeetan Patel. Sadly, his short innings didn’t have any short-ball interrogation and that question will remain unanswered as of now.
MS Dhoni’s arrival brought another dropped chance off Patel as Taylor completed his miserable day on the field with another dropped chance of his Indian counterpart. Patel had bowled all day with the mid-on up in the circle and Dhoni carted him over long on for a six to force the fielder to the boundary for the first time in the innings.
New Zealand took the 2nd new ball at the end of 80 overs but failed to make any further inroads into the Indian batting, though Pujara was let off when Ian Gould failed to spot the faint touch off his gloves to the keeper. Deserved luck or not, the absence of DRS will give Pujara a chance to increase his personal best tomorrow. Despite 31 overs of spin in the innings, New Zealand finished 3 overs short even after extending the play for half hour past scheduled time.
It was a day when the old gave way to the new on an unprecedented scale in Indian batting history after more than a decade and a half; a generation of cricket now relegated to memories and hands filled with promise for the future. Playing against New Zealand wasn’t the toughest task; their bowling lacked teeth and they offered no cauldron of pressure when we should have been tested the most. But Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli kept that flame of promise alive on a day where they showed that though nowhere close yet, they are a work in progress to becoming the pillars of Indian middle order after Dravid and Laxman.
