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New Zealand batsmen dominate on Day Four
New Zealand turned their rearguard performance into a grinding one, frustrating India in the process, on Day Four of the second Test at the Basin Reserve on Monday.
The home side was 571 for six (189 overs) in their second innings at stumps, a lead of 325 runs. Suffice to say, they batted India out of the game.
Brendon McCullum (281) and BJ Watling (124) broke a plethora of records as they helped the home team regain the initiative from a precarious 94 for five.
The duo added a record 352 runs for the sixth wicket before Watling was trapped leg before by Mohammad Shami, the lone New Zealand wicket to fall on the day.
It was the best sixth-wicket partnership ever, besting the 351 runs added by Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene at Colombo in 2009-10, also against India.
McCullum proceeded to break a plethora of records as a batsman as well.
McCullum completes third double century
McCullum, dropped twice early on in his innings, completed his third double hundred in Tests with a boundary off Zaheer Khan
It was the New Zealand captain's second in succession, after his 224 in Auckland.
McCullum thereby became the first New Zealand batsman to score back-to-back double hundreds.
For the record, all three of McCullum's double hundreds have come against India, the other being 225 at Hyderabad in 2010, his highest score till this match.
India is the only top Test nation against which McCullum averages in excess of 60, way above his career average (36).
McCullum is only the second New Zealand batsman, after former captain Stephen Fleming, to score three Test double-hundreds.
New Zealand's captain is the sixth batsman to score more than 500 runs in a two-match series. He also broke Glenn Turner's longstanding record (504 minutes) for the longest innings by a New Zealand batsman.
Watling provided the perfect support
If McCullum's was an innings of character, so was Watling's.
Having joined his captain with New Zealand precariously placed at 94 for 5, Watling more than played his part.
Out of form thus far in the series, the 28-year-old rose to the occasion when the chips were down.
Watling notched up his highest Test score
A boundary off Ravindra Jadeja helped Watling get to 99. Another boundary off Zaheer, in the next over, saw him complete his third Test hundred.
The shot also helped him complete 1,000 Test runs.
It was a terrific innings against all odds.
The wicketkeeper-batsman proceeded to notch his highest Test score (124) before the second new ball did him in, Shami trapping him plumb in front.
Watling's 367-ball knock was inclusive of 13 boundaries; his dismissal in the 161st over (160.2) meant India had finally taken a wicket after 123 overs, the last being that of Corey Anderson (in 37.2 overs).
McCullum and Watling broke a plethora of partnership records
McCullum and Watling broke a plethora of partnership records on the day.
For starters, it was New Zealand's highest partnership against India, for any wicket, besting the 271 runs for fourth wicket added between Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor at McLean Park (Napier) in 2009.
It then became the highest partnership for the sixth wicket for New Zealand, bettering the 339 put together by McCullum and Martin Guptill against Bangladesh at Seddon Park in February 2010.
Finally, they broke the record for best partnership, across all countries, for the wicket.
New Zealand's captain added a further 125 runs with Jimmy Neesham (67) in an unbroken seventh wicket stand, the latter scoring a fifty on debut.
With a day left, suffice to say New Zealand has batted India out of this game.