RESURRECTION AFTER COLLAPSE; Kohli, Rohit, Sarfaraz fifties take India to 231/3 at close on Day 3

NT Correspondent Bengaluru: A counter-attacking India kept alive the hopes of a miracle turnaround through free-flowing fifties from the troika of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Sarfaraz Khan, reaching 231 for three in their second innings on the third day of the first Test against New Zealand here on Friday. Kohli (70), who completed 9,000 Test runs during the course of his knock, got out to Glenn Phillips off the last ball of the day, edging him to Tom Blundell, leaving Sarfaraz (70) at the crease at close. The deficit at the end of an overcast day was a less intimidating 125. Kohli and Sarfaraz added 136 runs for the third wicket after skipper Rohit did the early running with a fluent 52. This was after New Zealand posted a total of 402 all out to gain a massive lead of 356 runs thanks to Rachin Ravindra (134) and Tim Southee (63), who added precious 134 runs for a flowing eighth wicket stand. The largest deficit India has overturned to win a Test in their cricketing history is 274 during the iconic Kolkata Test against Australia in 2001.

Such an epic is still some distance away, but hopes will be flickering after the day's effort with the bat. Amid the more coruscating fifties by Rohit and Sarfaraz, Kohli's effort still stood out for its personal and situational significance. It was his first Test half-century of 2024, and he could not have timed his 31st in the longest format better -- literally and figuratively. Seldom a shot describes the touch of Kohli better than the cover drive, and the moment he executed one off pacer William O'Rourke, the 35-year-old was in full flow. He took 15 balls to get off the mark. Kohli brought up his fifty with a single off Matt Henry but at the other end, Sarfaraz resembled a race car on the tarmac. The Mumbai man punished all bowlers with disdain and left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel was shunted off the park for two successive sixes. Then there was a daring upper cut for maximum off O'Rourke and fortune also blessed him as a couple of edges fell inches short of Ajaz at gully and wide of third slip.

Before Kohli and Sarfaraz ran roughsho, another old-young combination of Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal (35) gave India a solid start. Jaiswal went through an early uncertain play-and-miss phase but he overcame that to play some sparkling shots. Rohit had no such issues. The right-hander flicked and drove New Zealand pacers to reach a fifty off just 59 balls, and also thrilled the crowd with that patented swivel pull on one leg. But his tenure in the middle ended in unfortunate circumstances. Rohit offered a forward defensive shot to Ajaz, but the ball trickled back onto his stumps after taking a deflection from his bat.

Kohli crosses 9,000 runs in Test cricket

Batting maestro Virat Kohli became the fourth Indian to cross 9000 runs in Test cricket, scaling another peak in a glorious career during the third day of the opening match against New Zealand here on Friday. Kohli joined an august company featuring Sachin Tendulkar (15921), Rahul Dravid (13265) and Sunil Gavaskar (10122). However, he is the slowest among them to reach this landmark, having taken 197 innings. The 35-year-old Kohli reached the mark after crossing his half-century in India's second-innings. Batting at No. 3, Kohli fell for a nine-ball duck in the first innings as India were all out for 46. In the recent Test series against Bangladesh, Kohli became the quickest batter to complete 27,000 international runs in only 594 innings.