Missing the Killer Blow

Day 3 at Hyderabad

Mixed emotions at the end of three days. New Zealand have managed to hang by India's coat-tails for most of the game so far, and even dominated some passages of play, when everybody expected it to be a cakewalk for India. On the other hand after clawing their way into the game first with the bat and then with the ball, control has slipped for their grasp time and again. Overall, it's tending towards disappointment at this stage.

The first day was great. Gutsy effort from McIntosh, and good on Guptill for making the most of his escapes early on (has he played himself back into form?). Following the collapse on the second day they were criticised for going too slow initially, but in reality they deviated from the gameplan slightly, and Zaheer was too good. Then after doing all the hard work and having India nine down, the fear of Harbhajan took over.

I won't go deep into the the unbroken tenth wicket partnership between Bhajji and Sreesanth but suffice to say that Vettori's captaincy was once again found wanting at a crucial stage, and the seamers bowled some rubbish lengths to Bhajji (except for one burst from Martin where he almost bounced him out).

The inability of NZ to finish the job is an old problem, and memories of that test at Brisbane in 2004 are starting to surface. Both Martin and Vettori carried the bowling that time around, so surely they must have learnt something from it?