Martin leaves India in a mess

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Ahmedabad, Nov. 7: By now, even V.V.S Laxman would have lost count on the number of times he has been called upon by team-mates to dig India out of a hole.

On Monday — the final day of the first Test here against New Zealand — while the rest of India’s celebrated batting line-up fathoms how the number-one ranked team could be on the brink of a Test loss against the No. 9 from the comfort of the pavilion — Laxman will yet again be out in the middle attempting to do the impossible.

After letting New Zealand get up to 459 in the first innings halfway through Day Four on a pitch that Shanthakumaran Sreesanth described as “unresponsive”, the home side lost their top five batsman for just 15 runs and the sixth one with the addition of 50 more.

At stumps, India were at 82/6 with their last batsman in Laxman (34 batting, 99b) at the crease with Harbhajan Singh (12 batting, 20b), 110 runs ahead. And it took just one spell of seam bowling by Kiwi pacer Chris Martin (5/31) to make that happen.

Martin made the ball move just enough on Sunday evening to push the Indians into making mistakes. Gautam Gambhir (0) inside-edged the third ball of the side’s second innings onto his stumps, before another Martin — substitute fielder Guptil — made a diving save at wide mid-off off a Rahul Dravid punch, and threw it back at the non-strikers’ end to run out their biggest threat Virender Sehwag (1).

Any chance of India taking the game by the scruff of its neck went with him. A hapless Dravid (1) was gone few balls later, stabbing at a wide Martin delivery away from the body, and edging it to the ‘keeper.

India went to tea at 3/3, a dire situation but redeemable with Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar at the crease. Martin’s figures at that stage read 3-3-0-2. It became progressively better in the final session. Laxman stayed, but Tendulkar fell, misreading the pacer’s line and inside-edging on to his stumps. Raina (0) followed him soon after to make it 15/5.

Scoreboard

India (1st innings) 487

New Zealand (1st innings)
T. McIntosh c Dhoni b Zaheer 0, B. McCullum st Dhoni b Ojha 65, B.J. Watling b Ojha 6, R. Taylor c Laxman b Harbhajan 56, J. Ryder lbw b Sreesanth 103, K. Williamson c Laxman b Ojha 131, D. Vettori c Dhoni b Raina 41, G. Hopkins lbw b Ojha 14, J. Patel b Sreesanth 14, H. Bennett b Zaheer 4, C. Martin not out 3
Extras (b5, lb12, nb5) 22
Total (in 165.4 overs) 459/10
FoW: 1-8, 2-27, 3-131, 4-137, 5-331, 6-417, 7-417, 8-445, 9-445, 10-459.
Bowling: Zaheer 28.4-6-70-2, Sreesanth 26-2-88-2 (nb5), Ojha 53-14-107-4, Harbhajan 43-7-112-1, Sehwag 1-0-7-0, Raina 12-1-42-1, Tendulkar 2-0-16-0
India (2nd innings)
G. Gambhir c Hopkins b Martin 0, V. Sehwag run out 1, R. Dravid c Hopkins b Martin 1, S. Tendulkar b Martin 12, V.V.S. Laxman n.o. 34, S. Raina c Taylor b Martin 0, M.S. Dhoni b Martin 22, Harbhajan n.o. 12
Total (in 40 overs) 82/6
FoW: 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-15, 5-15, 6-65
Bowling: Martin 13-7-25-5, Vettori 15-2-31-0, Patel 10-1-18-0, Williamson 2-0-8-0.