Virat Kohli scored his second Test double-hundred and Ajinkya Rahane made 188 before India declared their first innings at 557 for 5 and left New Zealand a tricky nine overs to bat at the end of day two. They managed to survive this period unscathed, as Tom Latham and an aggressive Martin Guptill took them to 28 for 0 at stumps.
Kohli and Rahane added 365, India’s highest partnership for the fourth wicket, and subjected New Zealand to three wicketless sessions before Jeetan Patel finally broke through in the first over after tea. Going on the back foot to a quickish length ball, Kohli was lbw trying to work the ball into the leg side.
Rahane played his shots as India looked to score quick runs before declaring, hitting Patel and Mitchell Santner for three fours in five overs, before falling to another aggressive shot when he was within sight of a maiden double-ton, nicking to the wicketkeeper while trying to drive Trent Boult away from his body.
Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja – promoted ahead of R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha – then hustled 53 in 9.5 overs before Kohli called them in. In what turned out to be the penultimate over of their innings, umpire Bruce Oxenford penalised Jadeja for running on the danger area of the pitch, awarding New Zealand five penalty runs. Jadeja had already received a caution and a warning.
The pitch, fairly benign on day one, continued to belie its appearance, the multitude of cracks on its surface causing the batsmen only the occasional bit of discomfort, usually when the ball kept low. Kohli nearly played on when he went back to defend one such ball from Patel, early in the day: it hit the toe-end of his bat, then the ground, and then bounced over the stumps. Later in the morning session, Rahane jammed his bat down hurriedly to keep out another ankle-high Patel shooter. Otherwise, there was little in either the bowling or the pitch to worry Kohli and Rahane.
Kohli, who scored 200 against West Indies in July, in Antigua, became the first Indian to make two double-hundreds as captain. He also became the first Indian since Sachin Tendulkar in 2010 to score two double-tons in a year. He carried on batting with the same understated authority he had displayed on day one, flowing smoothly along and giving New Zealand no glimpse of a way past him. He hit ten of his 20 fours on day two, including a couple of gorgeous drives down the ground – one, shortly after lunch, off James Neesham, bisected the tiniest of gaps between short midwicket and mid-on – and even a delicate reverse-dab off Santner that sped to the boundary to the left of backward point.
There was a sense of inevitability about Kohli’s runs. Three times this series, he has been out to ambitious shots, and in this innings stayed well within self-imposed limits of strokeplay. He only hit one boundary across the line of a full ball, when he was already past 150 and took the liberty of muscling Santner into the gap between deep square leg and long-on. He almost never lofted the ball.
That option was left to Rahane, who used his feet superbly to the spinners, either to loft Santner inside-out or to give himself a bit of swinging room and flat-bat Patel back over his head. He played the chip over the covers even against the seamers, bringing up his 150 with that shot, off Neesham.
These were the shots of a batsman enjoying himself after a hard struggle to his century. In the morning session, New Zealand’s fast bowlers, as they had done through day one, peppered Rahane with the short ball, looking to exploit the uncertain pace and bounce of the Holkar Stadium pitch to plant indecision in the batsman’s head.
Rahane ducked under the first one he faced in the morning, against Henry, and pulled the next one, at the start of his next over, to the square-leg boundary, closing his eyes momentarily but rolling his wrists nicely over the head-high ball to keep it down. Then, two balls later, Henry went around the wicket. Rahane swayed away to account for the angle across him, but it jagged back in off the pitch, followed him, and hit the side of his helmet, just over his ear.
The bowler and New Zealand’s fielders came to Rahane to check on his health, but that didn’t mean the bouncer barrage would end. Henry bowled another the very next ball, and Rahane top-edged a hook towards fine leg.
Given the discomfort this tactic was causing Rahane, Williamson delayed the reintroduction of the left-arm spinner Santner, who had been ready to come on at the start of the 100th over. Henry bowled another instead – the fifth of his morning spell – and then gave way to Boult.
By then, though, Rahane had moved to 99, and got to his hundred off Boult’s first ball, a short one down the leg side that he paddled down to fine leg. This was perhaps the least fluent of his eight Test hundreds, but perhaps also one of the most satisfying, given how much discomfort he had overcome.
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