New Zealand hold upper hand after Day 1 of their warm-up match against Mumbai

The New Zealanders gave a good account of themselves on the opening day of their three-day warm-up match against Mumbai at the Ferozshah Kotla in New Delhi on Friday.

Put into bat by captain Aditya Tare, Mumbai dented the visitors early as Balwinder Sandhu removed Martin Guptill for 15 to make it 29 for 1. But Tom Latham and Kane Williamson put forth an 84-run stand to gain some control over proceedings before the skipper became Sandhu’s second victim of the day, caught behind for 50.

Latham and Ross Taylor then put on 36 runs for the third wicket before the latter was dismissed for 55 and then Taylor too followed him to the pavilion soon to leave the Kiwis at 184 for 4.

Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling and the rest of the lower-order all made good contributions and eventually Williamson called the innings close at the score of 324 for 7.Apart from the runs of the top order, the most heartening outcome for the captain would have been the 45 made by Mitchell Santner, coming in at number 7.

Ideally, Mumbai would have liked to end the day without losing any wickets, but that didn’t prove to be the case as Trent Boult struck in the opening over itself, removing Jay Bista for a third-ball duck.

Kaustubh Pawar and Armaan Jaffer ensured there was no further damage, putting on 29 runs to end the day at that score for the loss of a solitary wicket.

Saturday will be an intriguing day for it could be the one, which could provide Rohit Sharma the opportunity to stake a claim in the line-up for the 1^st Test starting, next week. If the right-hander can get his act together against Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and the spin trio of Santner, Ish Sodhi and Mark Craig, then he will do his chances of getting a berth no harm.

Another failure,however, could mean that the likelihood of Virat Kohli playing five bowlers at Kanpur would further enhance.

The day also provides the opportunity to the three Kiwi spinners to get some confidence under their belt before the Kanpur Test and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in the battle tomorrow.

The day also provides an opportunity for someone like a Jaffer, who was a part of the India U19 squad that played at the World Cup earlier this year, to showcase his talent against a world class bowling attack.