Day 3: Axar takes five to bowl out New Zealand for 296, India 14 for 1
Kanpur, Nov 27; Axar Patel continued his golden run in favourable home conditions, grabbing another five-wicket haul to put India in the driver's seat after New Zealand were bowled out for 296 despite an opening stand of 151 on the third day of the first Test here on Saturday.
The left-arm spinner had a couple of dream sessions when he finally found the ideal pace and turn off the surface to completely derail New Zealand's steady first innings. His final figures read 34-6-62-5 as India got a crucial 49-run first innings lead, which increased to 63 at stumps.
Ravichandran Ashwin was also on the money as he bowled 42.3 overs to finish on 3 for 82, inching closer to becoming the third highest Indian wicket-taker in Test cricket.
Gujarat man Axar has been terrific since he donned the India whites at the start of the year and now has as many as 32 wickets in just three and half Tests. The five-for was his fifth having already got four in the three Tests against England.
However, he will cherish this one a bit more considering that the track was not as diabolical as the ones in the England series (second Test in Chennai and the Pink Test in Ahmedabad).
At stumps, the hosts were 14 for 1 after losing Shubman Gill (1) for the second time to Kyle Jamieson, who again found a gaping hole between his bat and pad.
With the deliveries keeping wickedly low, New Zealand's chances of fighting it out in the fourth innings will be pretty low unless skipper Kane Williamson produces one of his steady knocks.
On the day, however, he managed just 18 and when Umesh Yadav's in-cutter brought about his downfall at the stroke of lunch, the wheels of fortune turned in favour of India.
This was after openers Will Young (89 off 214 balls) and Tom Latham (95 off 282 balls) added 151 for the opening stand but both, despite their dogged display, missed out on hundreds.
It was the second new ball that did the trick just before lunch as Umesh (1/50 in 18 overs) pitched one on off-stump, which cut back enough to find Williamson's pads.
The next two sessions belonged to India as they got eight wickets for just 99 runs.
Axar's perseverance paid off as he changed his line from leg-middle to off-middle and the release was at a greater speed when compared to what he did on the second evening.
He removed Ross Taylor (11), Henry Nicholls (2) and Latham within a space of 13 runs to completely upset Black Caps' rhythm.
It was in the post-lunch session that Axar finally sent down a classical left-arm spinner's delivery.
There was a delivery that had a bit of air and pitched on length drawing Taylor forward and then turned enough to take an outside edge which went to substitute keeper K S Bharat. Bharat came in after regular stumper Wriddhiman Saha complained of a stiff neck.
Nicholls also tried sweeping a much fuller delivery which turned back in and he was found leg before.
Having understood that on a slower track like this one, the pace off the pitch needed to increase, Axar gave it a tweak at decent clip which saw Latham beaten all ends up. Bharat fumbled before he could effect the stumping.
Prior to that, Latham hardly had any lapse of concentration as he played 47 overs of the New Zealand innings.
Later on, Axar got Tom Bundell (13 off 94 balls), who looked to merely survive and finally got a 'shooter' that cleaned his defence.
Southee became his fifth victim trying to play inside an arm ball which turned enough to hit the off-stump.
The pitch on the third day didn't change its character as it stayed low and slow but the Indian spinners did better as the time progressed by varying the pace of their deliveries.
During the session, Ashwin was seen involved in an animated discussion with umpire Nitin Menon after he decided to come round the wicket against Williamson and cautioned for walking on the dangerous area on his follow-through, which also obstructed the umpire's view.
The intention was to create a few roughs with his bowling spikes in the region.
Menon, having understood the motive, had a word with Ashwin and skipper Ajinkya Rahane and after some discussions, normalcy prevailed.
Later at the fag end of the of day, Ashwin cleaned up the visiting team's tail.
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Iran crisis: 225 flights cancelled at Mumbai, Delhi airports
New Delhi (PTI): As many as 225 international flights were cancelled at Mumbai and Delhi airports on Sunday due to operational disruptions in the wake of the US and Israel attacks on Iran and the subsequent closure of airspaces in the Gulf region.
Of the 225 flights, 125 flights were cancelled at Mumbai airport and at least 100 flights at Delhi Airport, sources say.
A source said 60 international departures and 40 arrivals have been cancelled at Delhi Airport.
"Due to the evolving political situation in the Middle East, west-bound international flights may experience disruptions or schedule changes," DIAL said in a post on X.
Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) operates the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital.
"A total of 125 flights have been cancelled at Mumbai Airport up till 2.30 pm on Sunday. These include 67 departures and 58 arrivals," said another source.
It may be mentioned here that due to the paucity of parking space, authorities at Mumbai Airport had taken NOTAM for not accepting any flight on account of diversion at 9 pm on Saturday until 8 am on March 1 amid the developments in West Asia.
The decision was taken due to the paucity of parking space at the airport with a number of flights returning to their origin or diverting to nearby airports, a source had said.
Mumbai International Airport Ltd, the private airport operator, issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) "for not accepting any more diversions" at 9 pm, the source added.
Earlier, the Civil Aviation Ministry said 444 international flights are expected to be cancelled by domestic carriers on Sunday.
