Tim puts Kiwis on top

Tim Southee bowled an incisive morning spell to take five wickets which was then brilliantly complemented by openers Will Young and Tom Latham as New Zealand dominated India to reach 1290 on Day Two of the opening Test here on FridayThe only highlight for India in an otherwise disappointing day was Shreyas Iyerrsquos 105 off 171 balls debut hundredPlaying his 80th Test match Southee 569 took his 13th fivewicket haul on an unresponsive track to send India packing for 345 after they started the day at 258 for 4Young then held centrestage in his fourth Test appearance as he looked composed and unperturbed during his unbeaten knock of 75 off 180 ballsLatham survivesLatham 50 batting off 165 balls the seasoned campaigner survived three onfield decisions two leg before and one caught behind negated by DRS and decided to frustrate the two Indian spinners with a gritty defensive gameAlso Read Shreyas gets maiden ton on debut Southee bags fifer IND 3398The Green Park track became better for batting on the second day and the turn that was on offer was minimal The variable bounce wasnrsquot also there for the better part of the 57 overs that they battedSince it was a slow turn the Black Caps duo mostly plonked their frontfoot and neutralised the turn And when they played on the backfoot there was enough time to manoeuvre on both sides of the wicketBoth were able to adjust on the backfoot against Ravindra Jadeja 144280 and Ravichandran Ashwin 175380 both of whom didnrsquot look threatening on the dayAlso what made it worse for India was that hardly any delivery kept dangerously low which could have brought the legbefore into the equationAxar disappointsThe most disappointing of all was Axar Patel 101260 whose accuracy on the leg stump line was of little or no value and it was once again proved that without assistance from the track he is not even half the bowler that he is with some help from the surface13No of fivewicket hauls claimed by Tim Southee in TestsBrief scoresIndia 345 all out S Iyer 105 S Gill 52 R Jadeja 50 R Ashwin 38 A Rahane 35 T Southee 569 K Jamieson 391 A Patel 290 v New Zealand 1290 W Young 75 T Latham 50Also Read Tim Southee openers bring New Zealand back in game as visitors reach 1290This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever