Indore: Winning his seventh consecutive toss as a captain at home, Virat Kohli opted to bat again and Gautam Gambhir was on the attack since the onset while Murli Vijay (10) missed out against New Zealand on the first day of the third Test at Indore on Saturday.
New Zealand bowlers kept things tight as Cheteshwar Pujara and Gambhir were steady. Gambhir (29) was trapped leg before wicket just before lunch in his return test and Pujara (41) was castled in the second session by a beauty from Mitchell Santner. Therefater, Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane had an unbroken partnership of 167 that took India to 267 for 3 at the end of Day 1. Kohli in the process scored his 13th Test century which was the first by batsman of either side in this series.
Gautam Gambhir and Murli Vijay started well but Vijay got out early. Gambhir continued the pace of the game and hit two sixes in an over, both being short pitch balls. After that Gambhir and Pujara managed to get some runs and added 34 runs when Gambhir got LBW by trent Boult. Pujara (41) contributed some crucial runs and did 40-run partnership with Captain Virat Kohli when Mitchell Santner bowled him out.
Kohli got together with Ajinkya Rahane for a match altering stand and the duo ensured there were no more casualties for the day. The pair dominated the final session and upped the run rate considerably in comparison to the first two sessions. The run rate which was languishing at a little over 2.50 was under 3 at close of play. After a period of hard work where Rahane was seen struggling against the short ball off Matt Henry, he recovered well to go on to score his half century. He remained unbeaten at the stumps on 79, while Kohli on the other hand was as solid as ever. They manged to score 119 runs in that final session to ensure
Kohli was asked in pre match press conference as to why there were no centuries this series. He responded by scoring one himself today.
“One thing that stands out for me as a learning is how to control a session that's not going your way. The session when the other team is batting well, you should know how to control runs and at the same time not go negative,” Kohli had said before match.
