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Gambhir, Dravid take India towards safety

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A superb rearguard action from Gautam Gambhir supported well by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar raised the hopes of India drawing the second Test at Napier. At stumps on Day 4, India was sitting pretty at 252 for 2 with Gambhir battling it out with a patient century in the company of a strokeful Tendulkar. India lost just the one wicket in the form of Rahul Dravid in the entire course of the day that too through a bad dismissal. India is now just shy of 62 runs with 9 wickets in hand.

Morning Session: Gambhir, Dravid bat through the session

Gautam Gambhir resisted himself from going for the extravagant shots and Rahul Dravid was back to his good old self. The Kiwi bowling wasn’t penetrative enough to break this partnership and India safely went to lunch without losing a wicket, they took the score to 119 for 1 in 50 overs with Gautam Gambhir moving onto 60 and Rahul Dravid on 34.

Afternoon Session: India’s fightback stunned by a bad umpiring decision

The second wicket pair continued from where they had left before lunch and India slowly got itself in a secured position. The Kiwis became very quiet as they were struggling to put any sort of pressure on the two batsmen. They finally got something out of the blue when Rahul Dravid was troubled by one delivery from Vettori that drifted in and kicked off to take the pad and land into short leg. A well orchestrated appeal from the Kiwis foxed Umpire Iain Gould to give the wrong decision against the batsman. Dravid had to depart furiously for an industrious knock of 62 (from 220 balls with 6 fours). He put on 133 runs with Gambhir but most importantly batted together for 63 overs.

Final Session: Gambhir, Tendulkar bat India through

Sachin Tendulkar did extremely well to ensure that India did not lose its way after the controversial dismissal of Rahul Dravid. With all his experience, the little master was able to get Gautam Gambhir to keep his head down and bat sensibly as India was no way out of the woods. The Kiwis took the second new ball but that only leaked some runs with Tendulkar able to find some valuable boundaries. The two batsmen carried India through the final session to take them to  252 for 2 in 107 overs. Gautam Gambhir got to 102, one of his most important hundreds of his life perhaps, while Sachin Tendulkar got to 58.