Ind-NZ: India bowl out Kiwis for 299, extend lead to 276 runs

At the end of day's play India were at 18 runs for the loss of no wicket.

Though the Indian batsmen did well to not lose a wicket, Gautam Gambhir suffered an injury and was retired hurt, while Cheteshwar Pujara joined Murali Vijay at the crease.

Vijay (11) and Pujara (1) will resume batting on the fourth day when play starts tomorrow.

Earlier in the day, the Kiwi opening pair of Tom Latham and Martin Guptill put up a resilient 118-run partnership before the former was dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin.

At lunch, the Kiwi's had put on 125 runs for the loss of one wicket.

Latham (53), tried pushing the ball to the mid wicket region but ended up scooping it for Ashwin to complete a simple catch.

Earlier, both Guptill (59) and Latham's chances went begging as Rahane and Jadeja dropped their respective catches, both off Mohammad Shami.

India had declared their innings for 557 runs for the loss of five wickets, riding on the back of skipper Virat Kohli (211) and Ajinkya Rahane's (188).

Their cause was also ably boosted by Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 51 off 63 balls.

The opening partnership was followed by a slump as the visitors lost five wickets in the ensuing session

Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli's  go to man in Tests, picked up four of those as the Kiwi batters failed to negate his spin.

Tom Latham (53) was the first to depart, before lunch.

He was shortly followed by Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson (8), who tried cutting at a delivery that spun sharply with ample bounce, taking his leg stump along the way.

Ross Taylor (0) and Martin Guptill (72) followed suit.

Guptill was a tad unlucky as he was run out of Ashwin's follow through.

Finding them at a precarious position with 148 runs for the loss of five wickets, a rearguard from the lower middle order batsmen saved the visitors the blushes.

A 53-run partnership for the sixth wicket between BJ Watling (23) and James Neesham (71) was followed by another 52-run partnership between the latter and Mitchell Santner (22).

Jadeja claimed Santner's wicket and Ashwin put an end to Neesham by trapping him in front of the stumps, thus picking up his 20th 'fifer' in Test cricket.

The off-spinner was also involved in a couple of run-outs, dismissing Guptill (72) and Jeetan Patel (18) both in his follow through.

The Black Caps innings ended with Trent Boult hoicking one off Ashwin for Pujara to grab the catch.

Ashwin ended the innings with six wickets, while giving away 81 runs in 27.2 overs he bowled.

(Writing by Sudipto Maity)

image: bcci.tv