Jamieson grabs five wickets to rock India as New Zealand take charge

Kyle Jamieson continued his eye-catching introduction to Test cricket with a five-wicket haul Saturday as New Zealand took the honours on day one of the second Test against India in Christchurch.

New Zealand, who won the crucial toss with an inviting green pitch on offer, were 63 without loss at stumps after rolling India for 242.

Tom Blundell was on 29 with Tom Latham on 27.

Jamieson, who has his sights on becoming established as an all-rounder, grabbed the headlines on debut with four wickets and a sparking 44 runs in New Zealand’s 10-wicket first Test victory in Wellington. He backed that up in Christchurch with five for 45 to blunt a promising start by India in the second Test.

“I guess it has fallen my way in the first couple of Tests,” Jamieson said, but added the Hagley Oval wicket required more precision than Wellington’s Basin Reserve.

“Your margin for where you try and land the ball becomes a little bit smaller and when we overpitched they put it away, if we missed wide they put that away. So it was a matter of hanging in there and as a collective we managed to do that and have a good day.”

Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari all collected half centuries for India to show that the green wicket was not as threatening as expected, and Vihari believed the side were at least 60 runs short.

“I think 300 plus would have been an ideal total on this wicket, but we showed more intent that we did in Wellington and that’s a positive,” he said.

“But he (Jamieson) gets much more bounce than other bowlers and that extra bounce is a big factor. The front foot ball becomes more dangerous than the short ball ... and deservingly he got the five.”

Shaw was in sparkling form at the top of the innings with 54 off 64 deliveries while Pujara and Vihari played more patient roles.

Pujara faced 140 balls for his 54 while Vihari’s 55 took 70 deliveries but with most of his runs coming in a late flurry of boundaries.

Captain Virat Kohli again fell cheaply and there was little life in the tail.

The last six wickets produced only 48 runs with 26 of them from Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah for the final wicket.

After Mayank Agarwal fell early, Shaw and Pujara put on 50 for the second wicket before the 2.03-metre (6ft 8in) Jamieson struck for the first time when he found the edge of Shaw’s bat and a leaping Latham snared the catch at second slip.

Enter Kohli and a chance for the master batsman to play a captain’s knock as India battle to square the two-Test series.

Instead his disappointing tour continued and he was out for three when a Tim Southee outswinger seamed back and smacked into the pads.

Southee followed with the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane for seven before Pujara and Vihari stabilised the innings in an 81-run stand for the fifth wicket.

Wagner bagged Vihari with the last ball before tea and Jamieson took Pujara soon after the resumption before racing through the lower order to remove Rishabh Pant (12), Ravindra Jadeja (nine) and Umesh Yadav (nought). Trent Boult ended Shami’s 16-run cameo to finish off the innings leaving New Zealand 23 overs to bat before stumps.

Agence France-Presse