India pull ahead after NZ succumb to Jadeja and Ashwin

Tea India 318 and 52 for 1 (Rahul 38, Vijay 14*) lead New Zealand 262 (Williamson 75, Latham 58, Jadeja 5-73, Ashwin 4-93) by 108 runsLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Wickets often fall in clusters in India. One brings many. New Zealand suffered two such clusters on day three of the Kanpur Test, losing three wickets in 23 balls at the start of the morning session and five in 29 after lunch, to concede a 56-run first-innings lead to India. In the process, Ravindra Jadeja picked up his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests, and R Ashwin swelled his Test wicket count from 193 to 197.

In the end, the two first innings mirrored each other. India had gone from 154 for 1 to 318 all out. New Zealand had lost their second wicket at 159. The magnitude of India’s lead may have been down to lower-order contributions. India lost their last five wickets for 57 runs; New Zealand lost theirs for seven runs. Not for the first time in home Tests on turning pitches, Jadeja, who made an unbeaten 42 in India’s first innings, had played a vital role with ball and bat.

By tea, India’s lead had grown to 108, with the openers adding 52 before KL Rahul late-cut Ish Sodhi straight into slip’s hands to bring the second session to an end. As he had done in the first innings, Rahul had shown plenty of attacking initiative, this time bringing out the sweep, reverse-sweep and inside-out drive to move along at a 70-plus strike rate. And as in the first innings, he was out in the 30s. At the other end, M Vijay had moved to 14 off 59 balls.

New Zealand went to lunch 238 for 5, and had moved to 255 for 5 when Ashwin came back into the attack to bowl the seventh over of the session. From over the wicket, his first ball was a flighted offbreak that brought Mitchell Santner on to the front foot and turned just enough to take a thin edge through to Wriddhiman Saha.

Santner, out …

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