New Zealand ride on Guptill, McIntosh as India toil

Fri, Nov 12 10 03:07 PM

Hyderabad, Nov 12 (PTI) Martin Guptill smashed a fluent 85 before falling prey to Pragyan Ojha''s guile while Tim McIntosh was unbeaten on 55 as New Zealand reached 159 for two at tea on the first day of the second Test against India here today. The visitors had decided to bat first after the coin landed in Daniel Vettori''s favour. McIntosh, after a pair in the first Test at Motera, was looking good for a big one and giving him company was Ross Taylor, who came in after Ojha had Guptill trapped in front for a well-crafted 85 that was laced with nine sweetly-timed hits to the fence and a six over long-off. Before Taylor''s arrival, the duo of Guptill and McIntosh, after seeing off a testing spell of swing bowling from Sreesanth during which they were made to work hard for the runs, settled down in the post-lunch session to get New Zealand''s innings back on track. Guptill was elegance personified during his stay at the wicket and his sweetly timed shots were a treat to watch. If the massive six over long off smacked of aggression, the straight drives off S Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan in the post-lunch session were a purist''s delight. In between, the Kiwi flayed into Ojha striking the left-arm spinner through the point and cover region for a boundary before getting to his fifty with a ferocious square cut off the same bowler. The hosts, desperately aiming to wrest the initiative from the visitors after escaping defeat in the first Test at Motera, earlier got off to a perfect start with Sreesanth removing McCullum as early as in the fourth over of the match of the match. It was a peach of a delivery that swung away slightly after landing and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni gleefully accepted the edge from the dashing New Zealand opener, who had smashed the bowler through cover point to open his account, his only scoring shot. Sreesanth could have had another one to his name but for an no ball. Guptill was on his way out after being done in by a typical Sreesanth outswinger but on-field umpire kumar Dharmasena belatedly called the batsman back after confirming with TV replays that the bowler had overstepped. New Zealand needed a bit of luck after McCullum''s early departure and once Guptill was given not out, the Kiwis were on their way, reaching the 50 in 89 minutes. A couple of drives through the cover and square region and Guptill''s six over long-on off Harbhajan Singh were the highlights of New Zealand batting in the first session. New Zealand have made three changes to the squad that played in the first Test at Motera. Brent Arnel came in for Hamish Bennett, Tim Southee for Jeetan Patel while Martin Guptill replaced B J Watling. India have retained the XI that played in the series opener.

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