PUNE: Washington Sundar returned magnificent bowling figures on return as India bowled out New Zealand on 259 on the opening day of the second Test here at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Thursday.
New Zealand had a shaky start to their innings as they lost their captain Tom Latham (15), who fell victim to Ravichandran Ashwin in the eighth over with just 32 runs on the board.
In-form Devon Conway then joined forces with Will Young and launched a recovery.
The duo added 44 runs for the second wicket until Ashwin struck again to get rid of Young on 18.
Conway was then involved in another important partnership for New Zealand when he added 62 runs for the third wicket with Rachin Ravindra.
The budding partnership threatened India but Ashwin, fuelled with momentum, made a timely strike to keep momentum in the home side’s favour by dismissing set batter Conway.
The left-handed batter remained the top-scorer for New Zealand with a cautious 76, which featured 11 boundaries.
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Ravindra then took the reigns of New Zealand’s batting expedition and put together a 59-run partnership with Daryl Mitchell until getting cleaned up by Sundar.
He remained a notable contributor to New Zealand’s total with a gutsy half-century, scoring 65 with the help of six boundaries including a six.
Sundar then ran through New Zealand’s batting tail and booked them on a modest total despite a gutsy 33-run knock down the order by Mitchell Santner.
Washington Sundar was the standout bowler for India, picking up seven wickets, while Ashwin bagged three.
India had a turbulent start to their innings as skipper Rohit Sharma fell for a nine-ball duck, courtesy of a squaring delivery by veteran New Zealand pacer Tim Southee.
The early jolted India’s reply but youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill did well to bat through the remaining eight overs and pushed India’s total to 16/1 at the Stumps.
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