WTC Final Day 2: India battle on gloomy day; reach 146/3 before play stopped

Virat Kohli in full flight against New Zealand on Saturday. Pic/Bipin Patel

Virat Kohli's watchful effort in challenging conditions helped India reach 146-3 in the post-tea session before bad light stopped play for the third time on Day Two of the World Test Championship final against New Zealand here on Saturday.

India, who had reached 69-2 at lunch, were only able to add 51 runs in the afternoon with the loss of Cheteshwar Pujara (eight off 54).Kohli (44 off 124 balls) and his deputy Ajinkya Rahane (29 not out off 79) were unbeaten on 44 and 29 respectively.

Compared to the morning session, New Zealand's all pace attack showed much more discipline to not allow the batsmen any easy runs. With the Dukes ball moving around, Kohli paid due respect to the bowlers including Colin de Grandhomme, who bowled three successive maidens to the India skipper.

He was happy leaving anything outside the off stump and was quick to pick up runs when bowled into the pads. Such was Kohli's intent that he did not hit a single boundary in the session.

Pujara at the other end took 36 balls to open his account, a cut shot off Wagner that went for a boundary. Like Shubman Gill earlier in the day, Pujara too was hit on the helmet but the blow from Wagner did not seem to bother him much.

Soon after, the gritty batsman was trapped in front by another left-armer, Boult, who swung it back enough sharply to beat the batsman. Earlier, Rohit Sharma (34 off 68) and Gill (28 off 64) staved off the initial swing threat posed by the opposition pace attack with disciplined batting before New Zealand fought back to leave India at 69 for two at lunch.

After Day One was rained out, cool and overcast conditions at the Hampshire Bowl on Day Two made it a no-brainer to bowl first and Kane Williamson did just that.

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Brief scores
India 146-3 in 64.4 overs (V Kohli 44', R Sharma 34, A Rahane 29'; K Jamieson 1-14) v New Zealand

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