http://sports.yahoo.com/m/sk/news/reuters/20021212/reu-india20021212.html
New Zealand take honours on day one v India
By Geoff Young
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -** New Zealand were 53 for one in reply to India’s 161 all out at the close of play on the first day of the first test. **
Mark Richardson was 27 not out while captain Stephen Fleming was on 11 after opening batsman Lou Vincent was dismissed for 12, with the score on 30, when he was caught by wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel down the leg side off Sanjay Bangar.
Apart from that breakthrough, it was a tough day for India after Saurav Ganguly lost the toss and was asked to bat by Fleming on a greenish Basin Reserve pitch that gave some assistance to the New Zealand pace attack.
Rahul Dravid was the mainstay of the Indian innings with 76, but received little assistance apart from a 37-run sixth-wicket stand with Patel, and was largely left to battle on his own.
Dravid batted magnificently after coming in when opener Virender Sehwag played a lazy shot to Daryl Tuffey and was bowled between bat and pad on the last ball of the second over.
The 29-year-old held the Indian innings together and when he was finally out, playing outside a Scott Styris delivery, he had faced 172 balls, with 13 fours.
The loss of Dravid spelt the end of the Indian resistance, though some last wicket slogging from Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra pushed the visitors past 150.
Zaheer was the last wicket to fall for a hard hit 19, when he parried a rising Shane Bond ball behind Jacob Oram, who leapt to pluck the ball out of the air, juggled it once and then regathered the ball to end the innings.
GREEN PITCH
Earlier, Fleming won the toss and asked the Indians to bat on a pitch that bounced and provided considerable sideways movement for the Kiwi bowlers.
Tuffey and Oram, who had to bowl into the brisk 50km/h northerly wind, restricted the aggressive Indians with some tight bowling.
Tuffey dismissed Sehwag in the second over then had Sanjay Bangar, who had scored just one run in 26 minutes, caught by Styris at third slip when a delivery ballooned off his glove.
Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar then upped the scoring rate with Dravid cover driving Bond and cutting Tuffey to the boundary before Tendulkar smashed Oram to the fence twice in one over.
But Tendulkar misjudged a ball in Oram’s next over when he shouldered arms and was hit just above the kneeroll to be given out lbw by umpire Ashoka de Silva of Sri Lanka for eight, leaving India at 29 for three.
Ganguly lived dangerously throughout his innings. He was dropped on two by Fleming at first slip when he got an edge high on the bat off a Bond delivery and then by Astle at second slip, again off Bond, when he was on 17.
But Bond had the last say when he induced Ganguly into another edge that flew to Vincent in the gully off the very next ball, the last delivery before the lunch break.
PARTNERSHIP
After going to lunch at 51 for four, the afternoon session began with a wicket in the first over from Shane Bond when Vangipurappu Laxman was caught behind by wicketkeeper Robbie Hart for a second ball duck.
Dravid then figured in the sixth-wicket stand with Patel (eight), which ended when Patel edged a short ball from Oram to Vincent at third slip.
Ajit Agarkar was the next to go for 12 when he was caught at second slip by Nathan Astle off Styris, who then dismissed Harbhajan Singh the next ball when the Indian off-spinner’s hook shot was brilliantly caught by a diving Craig McMillan in the outfield.
Zaheer denied Styris the hat-trick, though only because his nick fell just short of Vincent in the slips before he and Dravid saw India through to the tea break at 126 for eight.
After tea, Dravid was the ninth man to fall before Zaheer and Nehra smashed the visitors past the 150-mark.