Vihari, Pujara lift India against New Zealand XI

Hanuma Vihari and Cheteshwar Pujara came to the rescue of India during their dreadful batting performance on the first day of their warm-up game against New Zealand XI.

The duo show top class against their opponent in a game the three designated openers — Mayank Agarwal (1), Prithvi Shaw (0), and Shubman Gill (0) failed to live up to expectation.

With the contribution of the duo, India, after the skipper Virat Kohli preferred for an intense net session over the warm-up game, managed only 263 runs with none apart from Vihari (101) and Pujara able to score 20 runs.

The failure of the three openers is a big worry to the country’s selection committee with this kind of performance on a Seddon Park track that had liberal grass covering with India closing their innings on 263/9.

Gill, who was the number for in the absence of Kohli, was dismissed from the extra bounce while New Zealand’s pacer Scott Kuggeleijn’s rear ball from length during his first spell got him removed at 3/40.

Shaw’s dismissal can be described as the ugliest, as Kuggeleijn got one into his rib-cage, leaving him in no position to duck. With the bat face close, eyes were not on the ball, making the hit to balloon up for taking by Rachin Ravindra at short leg.

Agarwal has not been in good form lately. He edged an away going delivery to keeper Dane Cleaver behind the stumps.

Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed for 18 by the end of the first hour. All thanks to Vihari and Pujara, who produced a 195-run stand.

After Kuggeleijn and Blair Tickner’s spell, batting was easy in the second and third sessions. During the spell of the spinners, Pujara pulled Ish Sodhi over long leg to get a six while Vihari also hit three down the ground from the deliveries of left-arm spinner Ravindra.

Pujara was eventually removed by Gibson in the final session while trying to hook his delivery while Vihari got to the three-figure mark.

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed