Test Cricket: India Vs New Zealand 2nd Test In Bangalore Evenly Poised!

By -

Ross Taylor
India made 283 for 5 wickets at stumps on the second day the second cricket Test against the touring New Zealand in Bangalore today. India still trails by 82 runs with five wickets remaining. New Zealand scored a total of 365 runs thanks to a brilliant century by skipper Ross Taylor. The test match looks evenly poised at the moment with a lot depending on how much India add tomorrow morning.
After a humiliating defeat in the first Test New Zealand batsmen finally delivered yesterday, the first day of the second Test. On a cloudy morning as usual Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan struck early getting the prize catch of Brendon McCullum for a duck in the second over. But Guptil (53) kept on at the other end and asRoss Taylor walked in things changed for New Zealand. They managed to keep the spinners at bay thrashing them around at every opportunity. Taylor made a sizzling 113 and when he was out at 246/6 New Zealand was again in a bit of a spot. But a sound partnership between CFK van Wyk (71) and DAJ Bracewell (43) took New Zealand to a position of relative command at 328/6 at the end of play. The scoring rate of the day was also excellent. On the second morning today the Kiwis advanced the score to 345, but then lost all their four wickets for only 20 more runs more. Spinner Pragyan Ojha captured five wickets for 99, his third haul of five or more wickets. 
Dhoni and Kohli
The Kiwi fast bowler trio of Boult, Southee who replaced Martin for this Test and Bracewell utilized the heavy conditions and came seaming and swinging at the Indian batsmen. They were ably supported by sharp New Zealand fielding. Very soon India was reduced to 80 for 4 and New Zealand looked to be in full command. The opener duo of Gambhir and Sehwag failed again making it the tenth consecutive time, the former falling cheaply to Southee who removed Pujara too at the team score of 27. Bracewell removed a very defensive Sehwag (43) and Southee took his third wicket in the form of Sachin Tendulkar (17) clean bowling him through the gap between bat and pad. This was the second time in this series that Tendulkar was bowled through the gate.
In came Virat Kohli for a classic innings one more time. First he added 99 runs in a partnership with Suresh Raina (55) and then with skipper Dhoni (46 not out) added 104 runs in an unbeaten partnership. Virat Kohli was on the verge of another brilliant century making an unbeaten 93 runs at stumps.
Barring rain interruptions the second Test is set for an exciting finish. The Scorecard So Far!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Raghu Krishna: Adieu!

By -
Image
The man in the blue suit He was more of a dear friend than a boss. Raghu Krishna , the former Chief Producer of Films Division, Mumbai and Director of MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films) for 2004 and 2006 versions, passed away today following a brain stroke and coma. I first knew him as a film director in Films Division, Mumbai. As we became close we started playing table tennis. He was an attacking player specializing in smashes. Once I was defeated by a colleague and next game Raghu defeated him. Later, Raghu came over to my room for a fag and told me proudly, ‘I wanted to beat him because he beat you!’ I sensed his love for me instantly. Raghu appeared for an interview for the top post and finally got selected. He joined as Chief Producer in January 2004 and immediately took charge of MIFF 2004 as Festival Director. Till MIFF 2006 I worked under him and enjoyed every bit of it. He showed tremendous faith in me in the role of
Read more

Local Instability!

By -
Image
The two had not been in a stable state since the outbreak of the pandemic or positively longer perhaps. The problem was they had always been extremely close to each other like next door neighbors; however, the problem was exacerbated by their close physical proximity. Well, neighbors can be next door, but they have separate entrances and independent four-wall habitable units. In this case of the two there was no such personal space, they are almost joined together with separation impossible unless in the extreme case of physical elimination; no social distancing possible even if they wanted which in fact they did want on many occasions. But they had been under a mortal dread of a new entity forcing in its entry if one of them were eliminated. This situation exists even now.   They need each other very frequently on jobs that they have to perform together. For those kinds of jobs they indeed cooperate as much as each one is personally capable of. However, perhaps because of the exis
Read more

KK Demise: Bollywood Vs Regional!

By -
Image
There was an ugly kind of mad expression just the day before the Kolkata concert of the famous Bollywood playback singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK) who succumbed to a heart attack immediately after that fateful concert, held in a jammed auditorium in extreme humid heat conditions. Due to the lack of space we couldn’t mention it and discuss about this particular madness, obviously a pandemic-induced one to a large extent, in our earlier piece . It came from a well-known Bangla artiste-singer in the form of an enraged expression. He questioned as to who is KK indeed, that why should there be so much craze for such Bollywood singers like him and that there are more talented singers than him available locally in Bengal. No doubt, his comments were condemned in all quarters including the social media. The artiste himself apologized for his behavior and later expressed his terrible shock over the tragedy that followed the concert.   However, this kind of ugly conduct cannot be wished away
Read more

Kamalananda Bhattacharyya: Life and Works. And His Beautiful Songs!

By -
Image
Respectful tributes to my grandfather whom I never met in this life, but his music kept him alive in me all my life. January 4, 1951. Assam lost a great poet, composer-lyricist, playwright, actor and freedom fighter Bauli Kavi Kamalananda Bhattacharyya. On his 61 st death anniversary he is remembered fondly by Assam’s intelligentsia, artistes and music lovers. Born in 1894 at Nagaon, Kamalananda Bhattacharyya did not have an easy life. Brought up in a musical ambience he lost his father at a tender age of 15 and being the eldest son the full burden of seven brothers and family fell on him. Fighting against odds he went to Cotton College at Guwahati and passed the pre-university course. But he had to come back home before pursuing higher studies. Again he tried for graduation and went to Calcutta, but could not complete and had to join a secondary school as a teacher back home to meet the growing domestic needs. But even that was not for long. Sensitive and a patriot at heart,
Read more

The Pandemic-Driven Desperation Is Worrying!

By -
Image
The two-year long COVID-19 pandemic (no signal that it’s ended) has jolted the Indian economy almost out of its roots, heightened by the fact that the economy had been under a lot of strain for at least two years prior the outbreak. The normal demand-supply equation has gone bizarre—the supply chain not yet being able to resume its normal course, with some of the key sectors suffering maximum damage, in light of insufficient demand as the common people now want to hold on to their savings fearing an uncertain future. Normally, with less demand and normal supply the prices should fall and this has led many experts to expect a recession soon or already in the process. However, prices only kept on rising, crossing a whopping level of 7% in the recent quarter that’s made the Reserve Bank of India increase the Repo rate twice in two weeks. With some knowledge of economics I feel that while the customers are not spending their money enough the suppliers not still getting the normal booming t
Read more

Movie Heropanti-2: The Pinnacle of Insanity!

By -
Image
I had the misfortune of going for a movie in 2019 in a big theatre before the Pandemic put a stop to it, titled Pagalpanti (Madness) and was nearly driven mad. It was not my fault as the movie was having a lot of superstars and we went particularly because of Anil Kapoor. But now, after watching the new movie Heropanti-2 (heroism or hero antics) the previous movie seemed to have at least some kind of a method. The question arises then as to why I’ve made the mistake again! Well, firstly it was streaming free where I can ruthlessly go forward at will. And most importantly because I love the kid Tiger Shroff, son of my beloved Jackie Shroff, and ironically, Heropanti (2014) was Tiger’s debut film where his athletic and gymnastic skills plus his lithe, dancing and almost flying body were noticed. I watched only parts of that film some of which seemed a bit sensible, giving Tiger some scope to showcase his acting skills too, perhaps because it was a remake of a Telugu film. Of course, th
Read more

Maharashtra Political Thriller: A Shiv Sena without the Thackerays?

By -
Image
We’ve been liberally treated with political thrillers like that is happening in Maharashtra at the moment across the country since the last few years, thanks to the aggressive power-politics of the national ruling dispensation (BJP) which fittingly matches its aggressive Hindutva nationalism. However, the present game has been inevitable since the year 2019 when Shiv Sena (SS) parted ways with the BJP after jointly fighting and winning the assembly elections, and after a landslide victory for the alliance in 2014, on the CM post issue, and forming a coalition government Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front or MVA) with the Congress and the nationalist Congress (NCP). For the last two and half years the state BJP has been a grumpy lot, alleging a great betrayal by the SS and wanting desperately to avenge it; in fact, they’d tried at least three times to derail the coalition so far. This last one, even though the party has continued to be in denial about any involvemen
Read more