SK Player of the Day: Trent Boult for his spell of 3 for 52 on Day One
The opening day of the 500th Test between India and New Zealand has proven to be a riveting affair with the visitors bouncing back in fine fashion in the final session, taking up 5 wickets for 106 runs to leave India at 291 for 9 in 90 overs.
Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara were majorly responsible for the hosts reaching the total, scoring 65 and 62 respectively. Mitchell Santner was the pick of the three spinners, taking 3 for 74 in 19 overs.
But the main man responsible for the Kiwis to find themselves in the strong position that they are in at the moment is Trent Boult, who had a fine time with the new ball in hand, removing three lower-order batsmen to dent the chances of the opposition, getting to a big total.
He first removed Wriddhiman Saha with a lovely inswinger, that hit the bail on top of the leg stump and then removed a well-set Ravichandran Ashwin with another peach, coming around the stumps and foxing him with the angle.
With the natural angle expected to come in from that style, Boult got it to straighten and then deviate away from the right-hander, thereby squaring him up and taking the outside edge, which was taken by Ross Taylor at gully.
It was a much-needed scalp at the time for the Blackcaps as Ashwin in the past has shown that he had the ability to rally with the tail and his presence could have meant that India might have gone past the 300 mark on the opening day.
Then he removed Mohammad Shami, with a similar ball as that of Saha, with the ball coming in, sneaking through his bat and pad and taking the top of the off stump.
It really was quality stuff from the pacer, who had seen the spinners and fellow left-armer Neil Wagner taste success early on in the day and the number in his wickets column reading zero.
Boult’s exploits found praise coming his way on social media with Irfan Pathan, who lauded his ability to cut the ball into a batsman.
His performance later into the day has surely given the Kiwis the upper hand and now it is upto their batsman to stand up and be counted on Day 2, which in generally is considered to be the best day to bat on in India.