New Zealand 192 and 252 for 5 (McCullum 114*, Watling 52*, Zaheer 3-60) lead India 438 by 6 runs
He has lost the toss after asking for a nasty seamer. He has followed it up with a loose stroke to put the series lead in jeopardy. He has a dodgy back and a knee, and a left shoulder that is making him take painkillers. Brendon McCullum has also pulled out his toughest Test knock yet to take the Test into the fourth day and make sure India will have to bat again. At three down he came in with 194 required to save the innings defeat, saw it become 152 with five wickets in hand, but in the company of BJ Watling produced a tough rearguard that has given New Zealand the hope of clinging onto the series lead. The two came together in the fourth over after lunch and walked back together at stumps, having put together - at 158 - New Zealand's best sixth-wicket stand in a second innings.
These fighting scratchy innings are the thing Watling does, but McCullum had to fight his attacking instincts, swallow his pride along with pain-killing pills, and absorb and absorb all the pressure before opening up after reaching fifty in a calculated assault in an endeavour to crush the tiring bowlers. He was helped along the way by Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma, who dropped him on 9 and 36, but arguably the biggest assist came from the MS Dhoni-Duncan Fletcher combine who have a history on putting premium on making scoring difficult as opposed to survival.
Whisper it softly: India are still ahead in the game. New Zealand are practically 6 for 5. It didn't look like India were ahead even when New Zealand were minus-125 for 5. Ishant Sharma, their best bowler of the series, bowled to McCullum with no slips and a 6-3 leg-side field. Ravindra Jadeja bowled 24 overs unchanged for two moments of excitement because he could keep the runs down. India were clearly playing on McCullum's pride, waiting for a mistake. Apart from the two mistakes India didn't capitalise on, they couldn't draw any from McCullum.
You expect attacking batsmen such as McCullum to rethink their defensive strategy when they are dropped at 9 off 33, or 36 off 108. You expect them to think, "What the hell, this is going nowhere, I may as well attack." That thought either didn't occur to McCullum or he fought it successfully. Along with Watling, he defended, defended and defended. He knew if he did get an edge coming forward there was a good chance it would go through the vacant slip cordon. Which was strange especially given how the first three wickets to fall in the morning all fell because the ball seamed and took the edge through.
Dhoni, though, was telling the batsmen he didn't trust their skill and patience enough to keep taking the singles for long enough. And at any rate, there will be the new ball in the middle of the final session. McCullum and Watling were bent to prove them wrong. Every now and then a ball would misbehave, every now and then they would erase its memory as if with their feet while scratching the guard. It was such slow going that India seemed in total control, but drip and drip, with every ball defended, with every drop of sweat broken, McCullum and Watling were growing surer of themselves.
It was around the 55th-over mark when McCullum was seen flexing his left shoulder, and taking a pill. He might have had the pain before, but this was the first time he showed it. By then he had reached 38 off 113. By then Kohli had dropped a dolly from him at silly mid-on, and Ishant had let go off a return catch. Were India beginning to think of the last two captains Ishant had let off his own bowling? Michael Clarke had gone on to score 329, Alastair Cook 190.
Like Clarke and Cook, McCullum loves India. Three of his four best series as a batsman have come against India. He averages 61 against India as against 37 overall. Every now and then, even McCullum needed a release from the pent-up tension of just dead-batting. When Zaheer Khan, who had taken the first three wickets, came back for a mid-afternoon spell, McCullum pulled his first ball through midwicket for four. Back to defence. From 42 to 51 he took 32 balls, a tea break and a slog-sweep off Jadeja to release the tension again and bring up his slowest half-century.
By the time McCullum reached fifty, the new ball was 12 overs away, and New Zealand 93 short of making India bat again. India sat back and waited for the new ball. The new ball has been doing things. There was one difference here, though. When New Zealand were facing resistance in Auckland, Neil Wagner went for the wickets even as they waited for the new ball, and brought in two new batsmen. Here India almost let these two bat through.
And when the new ball arrived McCullum laced it. The first ball he faced with it he crashed it through cover for four, and immediately deep point went back. New Zealand still minus-38 for 5. The attack on the new ball continued from McCullum as he went from 51 to 100 in 5 balls and with a slogged six off Ishant. You could see that was a release McCullum needed, a pause to gather himself again, and then get back to business.
Watling helped him along, always ready to run at the captain's call, twice diving in to save his wicket, inching to his fifty. During the day McCullum became only the fourth New Zealander to 500 runs, Watling brought up his 1000 too. When they walked back they knew their job was done, but they also knew - former wicketkeepers, former openers - they might be onto something really special.
India made strides towards a rare overseas win, but Brendon McCullum and BJ Watling kept them at bay for the best part of the second session. Zaheer Khan, seemingly low on pace and intensity between Johannesburg Test and today, took it up a notch, removing Kane Williamson and Hamish Rutherford and also bowling a testing spell just before tea. Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja took the other two wickets, but it seemed India were now waiting for the new ball. The new ball was 16 overs away. They still had a 100-run lead to play with.
It is not as if nothing happened during the dour 52-run partnership between McCullum and Watling. McCullum was dropped twice, an edge fell short of the diving MS Dhoni, and Watling survived a run-out through a full-length desperate dive. As New Zealand hung in grimly, India gave the impression they were just waiting for their breakthrough without getting too desperate for it.
They were much more attacking in the morning with regulation slips and gullies during Zaheer's first spell of 8-3-21-2. Williamson would not be happy with his shot so early in the day. Yes, the ball did hold its line after seeming to be swinging in, but it was too wide, at least for a batsman the class of Williamson. This meant it was the first match of this tour that Williamson didn't reach 50. It also brought together Hamish Rutherford and Tom Latham, whose fathers had a Test partnership 23 years ago.
On a pair, Latham didn't betray too many nerves, and got off the mark with a square punch off Zaheer. While Latham looked solid, Rutherford just attacked. The two added more than their fathers ever did in a partnership with each other, but Rutherford's aggression finally did him in when Zaheer got one to wobble away from him, taking the edge.
Playing his 84th straight Test - only three players have played more straight from their debut - McCullum seemed uncharacteristically subdued. And determined. Even as Latham batted with assuredness and no dramas, McCullum's attempt at curbing his attacking instinct to try to preserve the series lead allowed India to place catching men in front of the wicket. He was 9 off 33 when Virat Kohli dropped him at silly mid-on. It was a generous lob that came through an unsure shot.
You would expect an attacking batsman to see this as a sign and throw caution out of the window, but McCullum kept at it, finishing the first session at 14 off 59. It was Latham who failed to do so, hanging a rod to one outside off in the last over before lunch. Just after the interval, Corey Anderson fell off a nothing shot to Jadeja. It seemed India were marching towards an innings win, but the fields didn't suggest so. Jadeja bowled to McCullum with a long-off and a long-on. The quicks bowled to him without a slip.
Battling pain in his left shoulder, McCullum wouldn't have minded such a bedding-in period, but Dhoni's idea presumably was to not let the batsmen draw any confidence from boundaries, which would also chip away at the lead. McCullum did provide two chances during a testing mid-afternoon spell from Ishant. An edge went towards the vacant slip region, Dhoni dived but it also fell short. Ishant soon dropped a return catch from McCullum, one of the easier ones bowlers can expect. Surely there will be memories of his similar drops of two other captains, Alastair Cook and Michael Clarke, doing the rounds? McCullum was 36 off 108 when missed by Ishant.
Zaheer ended the session with a spell of high intensity while Jadeja at the other end kept the runs down, bowling into a rough patch from over the stumps. McCullum, though, refused to pad up, and one of his attempts to play drew a leading edge and a confused call, which nearly ran Watling out.
He has lost the toss after asking for a nasty seamer. He has followed it up with a loose stroke to put the series lead in jeopardy. He has a dodgy back and a knee, and a left shoulder that is making him take painkillers. Brendon McCullum has also pulled out his toughest Test knock yet to take the Test into the fourth day and make sure India will have to bat again. At three down he came in with 194 required to save the innings defeat, saw it become 152 with five wickets in hand, but in the company of BJ Watling produced a tough rearguard that has given New Zealand the hope of clinging onto the series lead. The two came together in the fourth over after lunch and walked back together at stumps, having put together - at 158 - New Zealand's best sixth-wicket stand in a second innings.
These fighting scratchy innings are the thing Watling does, but McCullum had to fight his attacking instincts, swallow his pride along with pain-killing pills, and absorb and absorb all the pressure before opening up after reaching fifty in a calculated assault in an endeavour to crush the tiring bowlers. He was helped along the way by Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma, who dropped him on 9 and 36, but arguably the biggest assist came from the MS Dhoni-Duncan Fletcher combine who have a history on putting premium on making scoring difficult as opposed to survival.
Whisper it softly: India are still ahead in the game. New Zealand are practically 6 for 5. It didn't look like India were ahead even when New Zealand were minus-125 for 5. Ishant Sharma, their best bowler of the series, bowled to McCullum with no slips and a 6-3 leg-side field. Ravindra Jadeja bowled 24 overs unchanged for two moments of excitement because he could keep the runs down. India were clearly playing on McCullum's pride, waiting for a mistake. Apart from the two mistakes India didn't capitalise on, they couldn't draw any from McCullum.
You expect attacking batsmen such as McCullum to rethink their defensive strategy when they are dropped at 9 off 33, or 36 off 108. You expect them to think, "What the hell, this is going nowhere, I may as well attack." That thought either didn't occur to McCullum or he fought it successfully. Along with Watling, he defended, defended and defended. He knew if he did get an edge coming forward there was a good chance it would go through the vacant slip cordon. Which was strange especially given how the first three wickets to fall in the morning all fell because the ball seamed and took the edge through.
Dhoni, though, was telling the batsmen he didn't trust their skill and patience enough to keep taking the singles for long enough. And at any rate, there will be the new ball in the middle of the final session. McCullum and Watling were bent to prove them wrong. Every now and then a ball would misbehave, every now and then they would erase its memory as if with their feet while scratching the guard. It was such slow going that India seemed in total control, but drip and drip, with every ball defended, with every drop of sweat broken, McCullum and Watling were growing surer of themselves.
It was around the 55th-over mark when McCullum was seen flexing his left shoulder, and taking a pill. He might have had the pain before, but this was the first time he showed it. By then he had reached 38 off 113. By then Kohli had dropped a dolly from him at silly mid-on, and Ishant had let go off a return catch. Were India beginning to think of the last two captains Ishant had let off his own bowling? Michael Clarke had gone on to score 329, Alastair Cook 190.
Like Clarke and Cook, McCullum loves India. Three of his four best series as a batsman have come against India. He averages 61 against India as against 37 overall. Every now and then, even McCullum needed a release from the pent-up tension of just dead-batting. When Zaheer Khan, who had taken the first three wickets, came back for a mid-afternoon spell, McCullum pulled his first ball through midwicket for four. Back to defence. From 42 to 51 he took 32 balls, a tea break and a slog-sweep off Jadeja to release the tension again and bring up his slowest half-century.
By the time McCullum reached fifty, the new ball was 12 overs away, and New Zealand 93 short of making India bat again. India sat back and waited for the new ball. The new ball has been doing things. There was one difference here, though. When New Zealand were facing resistance in Auckland, Neil Wagner went for the wickets even as they waited for the new ball, and brought in two new batsmen. Here India almost let these two bat through.
And when the new ball arrived McCullum laced it. The first ball he faced with it he crashed it through cover for four, and immediately deep point went back. New Zealand still minus-38 for 5. The attack on the new ball continued from McCullum as he went from 51 to 100 in 5 balls and with a slogged six off Ishant. You could see that was a release McCullum needed, a pause to gather himself again, and then get back to business.
Watling helped him along, always ready to run at the captain's call, twice diving in to save his wicket, inching to his fifty. During the day McCullum became only the fourth New Zealander to 500 runs, Watling brought up his 1000 too. When they walked back they knew their job was done, but they also knew - former wicketkeepers, former openers - they might be onto something really special.
India made strides towards a rare overseas win, but Brendon McCullum and BJ Watling kept them at bay for the best part of the second session. Zaheer Khan, seemingly low on pace and intensity between Johannesburg Test and today, took it up a notch, removing Kane Williamson and Hamish Rutherford and also bowling a testing spell just before tea. Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja took the other two wickets, but it seemed India were now waiting for the new ball. The new ball was 16 overs away. They still had a 100-run lead to play with.
It is not as if nothing happened during the dour 52-run partnership between McCullum and Watling. McCullum was dropped twice, an edge fell short of the diving MS Dhoni, and Watling survived a run-out through a full-length desperate dive. As New Zealand hung in grimly, India gave the impression they were just waiting for their breakthrough without getting too desperate for it.
They were much more attacking in the morning with regulation slips and gullies during Zaheer's first spell of 8-3-21-2. Williamson would not be happy with his shot so early in the day. Yes, the ball did hold its line after seeming to be swinging in, but it was too wide, at least for a batsman the class of Williamson. This meant it was the first match of this tour that Williamson didn't reach 50. It also brought together Hamish Rutherford and Tom Latham, whose fathers had a Test partnership 23 years ago.
On a pair, Latham didn't betray too many nerves, and got off the mark with a square punch off Zaheer. While Latham looked solid, Rutherford just attacked. The two added more than their fathers ever did in a partnership with each other, but Rutherford's aggression finally did him in when Zaheer got one to wobble away from him, taking the edge.
Playing his 84th straight Test - only three players have played more straight from their debut - McCullum seemed uncharacteristically subdued. And determined. Even as Latham batted with assuredness and no dramas, McCullum's attempt at curbing his attacking instinct to try to preserve the series lead allowed India to place catching men in front of the wicket. He was 9 off 33 when Virat Kohli dropped him at silly mid-on. It was a generous lob that came through an unsure shot.
You would expect an attacking batsman to see this as a sign and throw caution out of the window, but McCullum kept at it, finishing the first session at 14 off 59. It was Latham who failed to do so, hanging a rod to one outside off in the last over before lunch. Just after the interval, Corey Anderson fell off a nothing shot to Jadeja. It seemed India were marching towards an innings win, but the fields didn't suggest so. Jadeja bowled to McCullum with a long-off and a long-on. The quicks bowled to him without a slip.
Battling pain in his left shoulder, McCullum wouldn't have minded such a bedding-in period, but Dhoni's idea presumably was to not let the batsmen draw any confidence from boundaries, which would also chip away at the lead. McCullum did provide two chances during a testing mid-afternoon spell from Ishant. An edge went towards the vacant slip region, Dhoni dived but it also fell short. Ishant soon dropped a return catch from McCullum, one of the easier ones bowlers can expect. Surely there will be memories of his similar drops of two other captains, Alastair Cook and Michael Clarke, doing the rounds? McCullum was 36 off 108 when missed by Ishant.
Zaheer ended the session with a spell of high intensity while Jadeja at the other end kept the runs down, bowling into a rough patch from over the stumps. McCullum, though, refused to pad up, and one of his attempts to play drew a leading edge and a confused call, which nearly ran Watling out.
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