2nd Test: Santner picks five as NZ inch closer to historic series win over India

Pune, Oct 26 (IANS) Left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner picked his second five-fer of the ongoing second Test as New Zealand inched closer to a historic series win by reducing India to 178/7 in 40 overs at tea on day three at the MCA Stadium on Saturday.

India had a blazing start to the chase by being 81/1 at lunch, but losing six wickets in the second session means they are still 181 runs away from a highly improbable win, with the end of the game looking possible in some time.

Santner, despite clutching on to his right side, had India in all sorts of troubles yet again to put New Zealand on the cusp of their first Test series win in the country. They now need to get past Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, plus rest of lower-order, to hand India their first series loss at home since December 2012.

The second session began with a blazing Yashasvi Jaiswal getting his fifty off just 41 balls with a whip off the backfoot going for four off Glenn Phillips, and followed it up with a cracking cut fetching him another boundary.

Santner had his first wicket when he caught Shubman Gill at the crease with a quicker delivery, which took the outside edge on the attempted flick to slip. Jaiswal hit four more boundaries to lead India’s charge in the chase, but got a healthy edge on a forward defence off Santner to give a simple catch to slip.

More trouble came in for India as Santner got a direct throw from point to catch Rishabh Pant well short of his crease at the striker’s end, as the batter was dismissed for a three-ball duck.

Santner again struck with the ball by trapping Virat Kohli lbw with an arm ball, then got one to spin past Sarfaraz Khan and peg back off-stump to get a five-fer yet again. Glenn Phillips entered wicket-taker’s list by having Washington Sundar caught bat-pad at short leg in what was a brilliant session for New Zealand.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 259 and 255 in 69.4 overs (Tom Latham 86, Glenn Phillips 48 not out; Washington Sundar 4-56, Ravindra Jadeja 3-72) lead India 156 and 178/7 in 40 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 77, Shubman Gill 23; Mitchell Santner 5-72, Glenn Phillips 1-37) by 181 runs