The Indian team gave a rousing welcome to Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja – their saviours with an unbeaten 113-stand. The team should be pretty happy with 258/4, especially after Kyle Jamieson looked threatening and reduced the hosts to 145/4. Rahane chose to bat with the new ball swung nicely for Tim Southee and Jamieson. Jamieson in particular was tough to negotiate, but Shubman Gill notched up his fourth Test fifty to steady the ship. Jamieson came back to get Gill immediately after lunch and also got the captain a while later. Southee took care of Che Pujara. New Zealand picked two spinners because it’s spin-dominant in this territory but Ajaz Patel was way off colour. So much so that they were employing the negative/defensive down the leg-side line than looking to take wickets. Will Somerville was pretty decent but didn’t quite trouble the batters. Overall, the pacers outbowled the spinners.
This is where Iyer and Jadeja injected intent in the innings. Jadeja’s authoritative presence liberated Iyer in their unbeaten partnership 103 runs which nullified any semblance of threat from the Kiwi spin trio of Ajaz Patel, William Somerville and Rachin Ravindra and negated the craftsmanship of seamers Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson. Jadeja ended the day with twirling his bat upon reaching his 17th Test half-century. Iyer was out there to counterattack much like the defining knock for Mumbai at the same venue seven years ago when he was on the verge of being dropped from the team.
The Indian team would look forward to the next day, as they would like to carry on the momentum from this day’s play.
STUMPS on Day 1 of the 1st Test.
An unbeaten 113-run partnership between @ShreyasIyer15 & @imjadeja propel #TeamIndia to a score of 258/4 on Day 1.
Scorecard – https://t.co/WRsJCUhS2d #INDvNZ @Paytm pic.twitter.com/7dNdUM0HkM
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 25, 2021
