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Dravid, Srinath pull it back for India

Prem Panicker

For India, beginning the day 170 behind with the cream of the batting back in the hut, the good news was that there was no sign of appreciable wear and tear on the pitch, which remained firm and hard, staying in character as the kind of track seamers would revel in, while there was just the faintest hint of spin from out of the roughs at either end. A cloud cover meant that there was some additional swing to be had.

The ask for the tourists was to whittle away at the deficit, get as close to parity as possible -- which meant that the likes of Mongia, Kumble, Srinath et al had to hang in there, keeping Dravid company for as long as possible. Not as hard an ask as it would seem -- you only need to consider that Wiseman, Vettori, Nash and Doull saw through 144 deliveries of pace and spin alike in the Kiwi first innings.

The Indians, however, started off as wrong as it could get. Nayan Mongia, who hasn't had a good run with the bat of late, continued his poor form here. Nash bowled one outside off, Mongia opened the bat face to play a totally unnecessary drive, with bat well away from the body, for the ball to find the fielder at point. A mere 17 balls faced, by a keeper-batsman capable of much more.

Simon Doull is on top of his confidence -- understandable too, given that he's been taking wickets like a hoarder hauling in the onions -- and bowled a lovely line in the morning, keeping it in the zone around off and seaming it away late, occasionally producing the inswinger just to ensure the batsman doesn't take things for granted. He produced one of those late leg cutters again, to Kumble, drawing him into an airy drive with feet nowhere close to the pitch, managing only to nick one through to the keeper.

Doull almost struck soon after when another leg-cutter found Srinath's edge. Daniel Vettori at second slip dived to his natural side, the left, and made a mess of a chance that was headed down Stephen Fleming's throat at first slip.

After that blemish, Srinath steadied himself. Displaying rare application, of the kind that produced two 50s against the Windies pace bowlers, Srinath defended to pretty much anything on line of his stumps, picking the bad ball off with clean hits but uncharacteristically, not fretting during periods when the ball dominated.

With that end seemingly secure, Dravid settled down at the other to play with the same calm assurance of the day before, bringing up his third Test century with a cover-driven four off Dion Nash. Given the constant crib that Indian batsmen are tigers at home, it is interesting that all of Dravid's centuries have come on foreign soil. Funnily enough, each of the three Test innings for India thus far on tour has yielded one centurion -- if little else to smile about.

Picking off the rare bad ball, the two saw India through to lunch on 269/7, with a partnership of 58 that ranked just below the Dravid-Tendulkar stand of 109 the previous day. Equally to the point, Srinath had weathered 72 deliveries by this point -- a fair measure of the application he brought to the game.

In the process, possible lead for the Kiwis had been whittled down under that psychological 100-run mark, and that should count as an unlooked for bonus for India in the first session.

The whittling process continued, in good style, in the second session as well with the Indian batsmen batting with the sort of composure they have lacked on this tour thus far. And as the runs kept coming, pressure finally switched to the Kiwis -- and they wilted, in a display of ragged fielding not quite in keeping with the standards they usually set themselves.

Srinath was the sole beneficiary, being let off four times in all -- five, if you include a missed run out. Those blemishes notwithstanding, the tall quick bowler produced an innings of self-control and selective belligerence. And all along, Dravid batted, at the other end, as he had in the first hour of play the day earlier -- watchful to anything on line of stumps, quick to take toll whenever the bowler strayed, with one back foot cover drive being perhaps the shot of the match so far.

Stephen Fleming seemed, during this phase, to have missed a few bets -- Vettori and Wiseman, to give them names. A left arm spinner is a good option to the tailenders -- particularly to Srinath, who is peculiarly vulnerable to the breed, and in fact makes a joke of it back in the dressing room. And unless the New Zealand think tank had picked him for his night watchman capabilities, it seemed to make no sense whatever to underbowl him to such a marked extent. In fact, it was Wiseman who finally produced the breakthrough. Srinath, who in the previous over had hoisted him high over midwicket for a six, went for a similar shot to one fuller up from the offie, got cramped for space and ended up hitting it to midwicket for Twose to produce a fine take.

The damage, though, was already done, with the 8th wicket partnership, a record for India against New Zealand, putting the touring side within a toucher of overhauling the Kiwi first innings. In the process, Srinath got his fourth Test 50 -- and his personal best in Tests -- with an innings of great value.

It was left to Prasad to edge Wiseman to backward point to take India into the lead, and with Dravid going past his highest in Tests and looking good to bat on forever, India went in to tea at 373/8 off 117 overs, having made 104 runs in the second session off 31 overs.

When, just after tea, Dravid cracked Doull through the covers to take India to 380, India recorded the highest score made on this ground. Dravid then got into the act, a superlative on drive and a cracking square drive bringing up the 400 of the Indian innings. Dravid appeared to have a lot of confidence in his stablemate, taking singles when on offer even when that meant letting Prasad take quite a few balls in the over.

For his part, Prasad -- as he did at the Basin Reserve -- put a price on his wicket, gritting it out and refusing to succumb to the pressure the Kiwis turned on. With the field full in, the lanky medium pacer went through with a few drives when the ball was pitched up, the ball racing for the fence once the close in fielders were beaten.

Dravid looked good to become the first of contemporary Indian batsmen to reach the 200 mark -- but at 190, weariness more than anything else told on the number three, as he wafted a square drive straight down point's throat to end an innings it is impossible to overpraise. With very little support at the other end, he kept his concentration going, and -- until Srinath and Prasad came along to assist him -- almost single-handedly ensured that India wouldn't be battling defeat yet again. The feature of his innings was the willingness to wait, to respect the good deliveries - and 31 boundaries indicate the ease with which he dealt with any looseness of line and length.

Two balls later, Cairns wrapped up the Indian innings -- but with a lead of 50 where, at the start of play today, they had seemed likely to concede at least a hundred, India took the honours at that stage.

For India, Prasad opened, with Robin Singh at the other end -- very surprising, given that Srinath had the Indian sign on Matthew Bell, having got him for a duck twice in three tries, one would have expected that the pressure would be maintained. Funnily enough, Srinath was on the field from the outset, but had apparently come out with the wrong boots -- so we had the sight of Srinath fiddling with footwear out on the boundary, while Robin pitched short and Bell showed signs of extreme gratitude, pulling him merrily down to backward square, where Srinath was hardly in a position to field, what with one shoe on and the other off.

All very comical of course, but not quite the aggressive attitude the Indians could have done with after taking a psychological edge over the Kiwis. Srinath finally came on and in tandem with Kumble, brought some sanity to the proceedings with a testing line, but by then, the chance was lost.

The Kiwis ended up with their highest opening partnership since November 1997, going in just 5 runs short of wiping off the deficit. For India, the knowledge, at the end of the day, that unless the bowling and fielding is out of its skin on the morning of the fourth day when conditions for the bowlers are at their best, there is very little chance of pulling off a series-squaring win here.

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