Half-centuries from each of India’s top-order batsmen gave the hosts the control after their bowlers had dismissed New Zealand for 193 on the second day of the third and final Test yesterday.
At the close, India had reached 292 for two for a lead of 99 runs, with the experienced duo of Rahul Dravid (69) and Sachin Tendulkar (57) at the crease.
Dravid, with his 60th half-century in Tests, and Tendulkar, who needed 43 more for his 50th Test century, have already added 100 runs in their unbroken third-wicket partnership.
Virender Sehwag (74) and Gautam Gambhir (78) combined for a quick-fire opening stand of 113 after paceman Ishant Sharma and spinner Pragyan Ojha picked up the final three New Zealand wickets in the morning.
Sehwag flayed the New Zealand bowlers and brought up a run-a-ball half-century — his 26th in Tests — with 12 boundaries and a six, before falling to New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori caught and bowled.
The flamboyant right-hander played some delicate late cuts, and audacious upper cuts and pulls as the visitors looked to attack him with short-pitched deliveries.
Gambhir celebrated his appointment as India captain for the first two one-day internationals against New Zealand with a confident knock, cut short when he poked at a Tim Southee delivery outside the off-stump to give Ross Taylor catching practice in the slips.
New Zealand had resumed on their overnight score of 148 for seven, but lasted just an hour with 45 runs added to their total.
Sharma snapped up the wickets of Brendon McCullum (40) and Andy McKay (5) to add to his scalps on the first day, Taylor and Vettori.
McCullum edged to captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps while trying to force Sharma off the back foot, then debutant McKay had his stumps uprooted by an off-cutter.
Paceman Southee (38) was left-arm spinner Ojha’s third wicket of the innings after a cameo during which he hit three huge sixes to move the visitors close to the 200-run mark.
The series is tied 0-0 after two draws.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier