In Bengaluru, rain has interrupted play, with India at 12 runs behind New Zealand in the second innings of the ongoing opener Test match. The best performer to date has been Sarfaraz Khan, who got his maiden test ton and is batting like a boss as India puts up an appreciable fight. He has been very important after a difficult start of the innings in trying to steady the team.
Rishabh Pant, who has been using a substantial amount of strapping on his knee, began his innings tentatively. But he did not take much time to settle and accelerated, getting a fifty from just 55 balls, which has given India a better chance once again. Sarfaraz and Pant are must-have picks for team, especially after a day which raised a lot of question marks for the Indians.
On the third day of the play, India got 231/3 at the stumps, but New Zealand’s advantage in the first innings was still out of reach, and the Indians were still 125 runs behind them. Yet the Kiwis responded with a total of 402 in their first innings, thus being some runs behind New Zealand. India got off to a good start, with Rohit Sharma scoring 52 runs and Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring 35 runs. But both got dismissed by Ajaz Patel, who has been a menace to the Indian team.
The turning point was when Virat Kohli batted on 70 of 102 balls. He was the main pillar of the team’s innings, but he got caught on the last ball of the day and turned the match drastically. However, India showed that they could cope without Kohli when there was an ardour partnership of 101 balls between him and Sarfaraz. Viewers of the game must be hopeful regarding the future of Sarfaraz’s talent after he remained unbeaten in 70 off 78 balls. The rain delay has surely stopped the flow of the play but certainly has not hindered India’s spirits, which are keen to chase the total and get a much-needed win.
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