Desk Report
Publish: 05 Dec 2021, 07:25 pm
Ajaz Patel || Photo: Collected
India needs another five wickets to win the second Test as New Zealand chase an improbable 540 despite the Kiwis' Mumbai-born Ajaz Patel returning a record 14-225 on Sunday.
New Zealand ended day three on 140-5 after the hosts
declared their second innings after left-arm spinner Ajaz, who took 10 wickets
in an innings, put up best-ever match figures by a bowler against India.
The previous best was England fast bowler Ian Botham's
13-106 in Mumbai in 1980.
Henry Nicholls, on 36, and Rachin Ravindra, on two, were
batting after Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (3-27) and Axar Patel rattled
the New Zealand top-order.
Ashwin struck first with the wicket of stand-in skipper Tom
Latham for 10 and then took down Will Young and Ross Taylor in successive
overs.
Daryl Mitchell resisted and raised his third Test fifty with
a boundary off fast bowler Umesh Yadav. He put on 73 runs with Nicholls for the
fourth wicket.
Mitchell finally fell to Axar's left-arm spin and
wicketkeeper-batsman Tom Blundell was run out on nought as a raucous home crowd
roared.
Earlier Ajaz extended his bowling show for New Zealand with
Ravindra joining his fellow spinner for three wickets including Shubman Gill
(47) and skipper Virat Kohli (36).
Axar hit an unbeaten 41 before India called off their
innings in the second session at 276-7, with New Zealand already a wicket down
by tea.
Overnight batsmen Mayank Agarwal (62) and Cheteshwar Pujara
(47) put on 107 runs to take the attack to the opposition in the first hour of
play.
Agarwal, who made 150 in India's first innings of 325,
reached his fifty with a six off Ajaz and followed it up with another boundary
to signal his attacking intent.
He finally fell to Ajaz, who almost bowled unchanged from
his end in the morning session, after another attempt to go for the big shot
got him caught at long-off.
Pujara, who hit Ajaz for two successive boundaries early in
the morning, was denied his fifty after being caught at slip.
Ajaz, 33, returned 10-119 in India's first innings on day
two to emulate England's Jim Laker and Indian spin legend Anil Kumble for 10
wickets in one inning.
Ajaz, who moved to Auckland with his parents in 1996, made
his debut for New Zealand in 2018 as a 30-year-old and is playing his 11th
match.
New Zealand's batting collapsed to 62 all out in the final
session on Saturday, leaving India with a lead of 263.
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