Bangalore, Sep 2 (IANS) Tim Southee took a career best 7/64 to help New Zealand take a 12-run first innings lead against India, who were dismissed for 353 on the third morning of the second Test here Sunday.
In the second essay, the Kiwis were 29/0 at lunch with openers Brendon McCullum (21) and Martin Guptill (7) at the crease.
Resuming at their overnight score of 283/5, India collapsed soon after the Kiwis took the second new ball as the 23-year old Southee, playing in his 19th Test, added four more wickets to his tally.
In a 15-ball spell he removed Virat Kohli (103), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (62), Zaheer Khan (6) and Pragyan Ojha (0).
However, the last wicket pair of Ravichandran Ashwin (32 not out) and Umesh Yadav (4) added 33 runs before the latter became Trent Boult’s lone victim.
The advent of the second new ball brought some cheer and disaster in equal measure for India.
While Kohli completed his second century in 10 Tests and Dhoni got to his half-century, a collapse was just around the corner.
Southee, in an inspired spell, wrecked the Indian late order as he extracted fair amount of bounce and movement off the pitch.
Kohli padded up to an in-coming delivery to be caught plumb in front while Dhoni missed a flick to leg and was rapped on pads.
Zaheer, after lofting Southee over long on for a six, was done in by a short ball to be caught behind. In the same over, Ojha nicked another for keeper Kruger van Wyk to complete the catch.
However, the last pair of Ashwin, who has a Test hundred to his name, and Umesh Yadav defied the Kiwis for 44 minutes to pick up useful runs that reduced the deficit to just 12 runs.
