Gautam Gambhir’s marathon innings of 137 and the very very special Laxman’s unbeaten 124 finally earned a draw for India in the second cricket Test against New Zealand in Napier on Monday.
Facing the follow-on for their first innings total of 305 in reply to Kiwis’ huge total of 619, the Indian batting line-up had a hell lot task to attain in the last two days of the game. However, the as usual strong batting line-up displayed their best to protect their 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
First, it was the nearly 11-hour long innings of Gautam Gambhir in which he shared some crucial partnership with all top order batsmen Rahul Dravid (62), Sachin Tendulkar (64) and VVS Laxman (124 not out) on the way, which later ensured a draw without giving much chance to the New Zealand bowlers to capitalize the follow-on stint.
Clouds were hovering around if India could save this Test after a meager batting effort in the first innings. Despite the fall of stand-in skipper Virendra Sehwag early in the innings alike the first innings, Gambhir and Rahul Dravid showed their class as two of the best Test players considering their application in the longer version of the game.
Resuming on 252 for two, the visitors first lost Tendulkar early in the day, but Laxman put a 96-run stand with Gambhir to further consolidate the Indian innings. Laxman scored his 14th test century in the process. This was his second hundred in a match when the team was following-on. Earlier in 2001, he had a match-winning knock of 281 in Eden Gardens, Kolkata against Australia.
Yuvraj Singh (54) along with Laxman added 120 before both the captains agreed to call the match off early with 17 overs left.
India leads the series 1-0 with the third and final test starting in Wellington on Friday (April3).
Brief scores
New Zealand 619-9 dec (J.Ryder 201, R. Taylor 151, B. McCullum 112, D. Vettori 55, J. Franklin 52; I. Sharma 3-95, Z. Khan 3-129).
India 305 (R. Dravid 83, V. Laxman 76; C. Martin 3-89) and 476-4 (G. Gambhir 137, V. Laxman 124, S. Tendulkar 64, R. Dravid 62, Y. Singh 54; J. Patel 2-120).
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