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Southee stars as Black Caps dismiss India

Ian Anderson Online For full coverage of day two of the second test, go to stuff.co.nz

When Tim Southee limped off midway through an over on day one of the first test against India, matters looked exceedingly bleak for the Black Caps amid the Kanpur smog.

The veteran bowler needed treatment for a groin injury, leaving the visitors temporarily with just one quick bowler as the hosts aimed to make a hefty total batting first.

While he returned to action, he was notably hampered by the injury and there would have been fears from New Zealand players and fans alike that Southee might not be able to front on day two yesterday.

Instead, he shone amid the gloom in a beautiful spell with the second new ball as NZ made constant inroads into India’s batting, despite a century on debut from Shreyas Iyer.

Southee took four wickets in the first session and ended with 5-69 from 27.4 overs as India were dismissed for 345 after the hosts had resumed their first innings at 258-4 at Green Park.

Kanpur is regarded as one of the most polluted cities in the world and the Air Quality Index was reported as climbing into the ‘hazardous’ zone for the players.

That didn’t bother Southee, even after he had an lbw appeal rejected in his opening over on day two against Ravindra Jadeja that NZ reviewed unsuccessfully, as he removed the same batter the next over.

While Iyer went happily about his business with a string of boundaries that helped him score a maiden test century, Southee kept chipping away at the rest of the home team line-up.

His mastery of outswing removed wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha and Iyer fell first ball after the drinks break.

The 26-year-old made 105 from 171 balls to be the mainstay of a batting line-up missing star performers Virat Kohli, Rohit Shama and KL Rahul, striking 13 fours and two sixes.

It was Southee’s 13th five-wicket bag in test cricket and took his career haul to 319 scalps, behind only Sir Richard Hadlee (431) and Daniel Vettori (362) in the list of most test wickets for NZ.

New-ball partner Kyle Jamieson went wicket-less on day two, leaving him one short of being the quickest man in NZ test history to 50 wickets, after capturing three wickets on Thursday.

Wicketkeeper Tom Blundell missed a stumping chance off Ajaz Patel when Ravichandran Ashwin waltzed down the wicket and was beaten by a ball that kept low. There were more deliveries from the leftarm spinner that scuttled through at an alarmingly low height, with the hosts possessing a dangerous threepronged spin attack.

Patel ultimately took two wickets.

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2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

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