Agency, Auckland :India managed to recover from early blows and were 130 for 4 in reply to New Zealand 503 when bad light forced the umpire’s to call off the play early on day two of the second Test at Eden Park on Friday. Rohit Sharma (67*) and Ajinkya Rahane (23*), who were at the crease when play was abandoned for the day have added a 79-run stand between them for the fifth wicket. Brendon McCullum’s sparkling 224 guided New Zealand to a commanding 503 in their first innings despite a six-wicket haul by pacer Ishant Sharma. India are still 373 runs behind Kiwis’ first innings total and require another 174 runs to avoid follow-on. India’s top-order once again performed miserably as they lost Shikhar Dhawan (0), Cheteshwar Pujara (1) and Virat Kohli (4)in quick succession to some inspired seam bowling by Trent Boult and Tim Southee. Since that 187 on debut, Shikhar Dhawan has scored only 132 runs in the following six innings and once again failed to make any impact as he was out off the second ball. Boult delivered an excellent ball short of good length, coming in to Dhawan and he got a leading edge flying straight to Kane Williamson at gully. The big wicket came three balls later when Pujara threw his bat at a delivery pitched full and wide and was caught by the wicketkeeper. Tim Southee compounded India’s problems by getting rid of Virat Kohli (4). He bowled a nasty bouncer that flicked Kohli’s thumb and lobbed straight to the second slip. Murali Vijay (26) did all the hard work before Neil Wagner dismissed him with a beauty to reduce India to 51 for 4. He added 41 runs with Rohit but had no answer to that Wagner delivery. Rohit then staged India’s recovery along with Rahane. Rohit especially looked in classy touch as he hit eight fours and a six off Williamson during his unbeaten 67. The stylish Mumbai batsman survived the initial jitters but looked well settled after spending some time at the crease. Earlier, skipper McCullum’s sparkling double ton helped New Zealand reach a commanding first innings score of 503. McCullum played a captain’s knock by scoring 224 off 307 balls with the help of 29 boundaries and five sixes as New Zealand were finally all out in 121.4 overs. Ishant on the other hand got his fourth five-for in Test cricket ending with figures of 6 for 134 in 33.4 overs.
