India have further consolidated their position in the ongoing 2nd Test against New Zealand, extending their lead to 405 runs on Day 3 when the lunch break was taken at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. India have reached 142/2 in their second innings with spinner Ajaz Patel adding two more scalps to his tally making it 12 wickets from the Test so far.
The morning began with India’s overnight pair of Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara resuming their partnership on 69. Ajaz, fresh from his 10-fer in the first innings, started the proceedings and was greeted by Pujara with a pair of boundaries in the very first over of the day.
Mayank looked in a hurry to reach his fifty and reached their with an inside-out shot over covers for a six. The duo raised a century partnership for the first wicket and New Zealand pacers began peppering them with short stuff, hoping to frustrate them and induce a mistake.
However, it was Ajaz who continued to be the lone striker for his team second innings in a row as he broke through with the wicket of Mayank who perished while attempting to up the scoring rate. He scored 62 off 108 with nine fours and a six.
Pujara, opening the innings in place of Shubman Gill, looked solid and reversed an lbw decision off Ajaz only to become his victim an over later thanks to a good low catch from Ross Taylor at slip. He missed his fifty by three runs, an innings that featured six fours and a a six.
More worryingly, this is the 42nd innings that Pujara has gone without scoring a hundred despite having batted really well in the second innings.
The pair of Gill (17*) and Kohli (11*) has so far added 27 runs for the third wicket and India will be hoping to declare soon with their lead already crossing 400-run mark.
New Zealand have used five bowlers but barring Azaj (2/77), others have been wicketless so far.
Brief Score: India 142/2 (Mayank Agarwal 62; Ajaz Patel 2/77) and 325 lead New Zealand 69 by 405 runs
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