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Kushan Sarkar Nagpur, Nov 20 (PTI) India''s new ball duo of S Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma blew away New Zealand top-order on the opening day of the third and final Test match at the VCA Stadium, in Jamtha, here today. At tea, New Zealand were precariously placed at 72 for five in 26 overs after the match started at 12:30 pm due to wet outfield with a minimum of 70 overs of play possible.
Jesse Ryder (26 batting) and wicketkeeper-batsman Gareth Hopkins (7) were at the crease. In absence of pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth and Ishant responded to the occasion to prove Sunil Gavaskar''s pre-match prediction that the pitch will be a "batsman''s paradise" completely wrong, as they put the hosts in a commanding position.
The effort was even more laudable as one session of play was completely lost. New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori elected to bat after winning the toss but the move backfired, thanks to the superb post-lunch session by the Indians.
Credit should also be given to left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha for his disciplined effort. The New Zealand openers Tim McIntosh (4) and Martin Guptill (6) started sedately before Guptill hit a square cut off Sreesanth.
His opening partner Tim McIntosh repeated the shot off Ishant in the very next over. However Guptill didn''t last long as Sreesanth produced a beauty to get rid of the makeshift opener.
It was the first delivery of the seventh over. Sreesanth pitched it on the middle stump and the ball moved a shade to kiss the outside edge of Guptill''s bat as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni safely pouched it behind the stumps.
Guptill''s dismissal may have had to do with the fact that he was assigned a specialist job at the eleventh hour as last match''s double centurion Brendon McCullum sustained a back injury while fielding during the practice session. MORE PTI KHS CM.
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