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Ahmedabad: In a dramatic twist, India found themselves in real danger of losing after a stunning top-order collapse left them tottering at 82 for six in their second innings of the first Test against New Zealand on Sunday.
After dismissing New Zealand for 459 in the first innings for a slender lead of 28, the hosts were left in total disarray in the second innings with lanky paceman Chris Martin doing most of the damage with figures of five for 25.
India were 110 runs ahead of the visitors at close of play on the penultimate day. The Indians were precariously placed at 15 for five at one stage but Mahendra Singh Dhoni (22) and VVS Laxman (34 batting) steadied the innings momentarily with a 50-run sixth wicket partnership before the Indian captain also perished at the fag end of the day.
Laxman and Harbhajan Singh (12 batting) were at the crease at stumps on a highly eventful day which saw as many as 11 wickets fall on the Sardar Patel track which still had no demons for the batsmen.
With just one day left in the match, all three results could be possible. India's first task would be to bat to safety and if they have enough runs on the board, they could push for a victory also.
New Zealand did a remarkable job to almost match India's first innings total with debutant Kane Williamson (131) anchoring the innings brilliantly while captain Daniel Vettori (41) chipping in with a useful contribution.
The Indian second innings began on a disastrous note as they lost their formidable batsmen - Gautam Gambhir (0), Virender Sehwag (1) and Rahul Dravid (1) - to leave the holiday crowd in a complete daze as the Kiwis turned the match on its head.
Gambhir's woeful run with the willow continued as he got an inside edge to a Martin delivery as wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins gobbled it behind the stumps.
It was Dravid's whose poor judgement saw the in-form Virender Sehwag fail to return to his crease. Dravid hit a lovely drive through mid-off but Martin Guptill dived full length to effect a brilliant stop before throwing it at the non-striker's end.
A single was always on but Dravid whose forte has never been running between the wickets froze in his crease as Sehwag was midway into the run. It was impossible to get back and the disaster struck.
Martin, who probably bowled the spell of his life got a ball to pitch on off and hold its line as the former India captain nicked it to Hopkins behind stumps.
It was an unbelievable turn of events as the scoreboard read 2/3 with Sachin Tendulkar at crease. As the whole nation expected that the 50th Test century would be the one in which the maestro would dig the team out of the dumps.
Tendulkar hit a couple boundaries as he raced to 12 before Martin brought one back into the batsman and he played to a wrong line that saw the delivery take the inside edge of his bat and the leg stump went for a walk.
Martin got his fourth scalp when Suresh Raina's lack of footwork saw him try to drive an away going delivery which was smartly taken at first slip by Ross Taylor.
The day witnessed a dramatic turn-around of fortunes as New Zealand - till on Saturday the hunted became the hunter and came close to the Indian score by riding on Kane Williamson's well-compiled century on debut and then piled on the pressure through Martin's splendid bowling.
Martin's sensational first spell had figures of 9-6-15-4. With the team tottering at 15 for five, skipper Dhoni and Laxman carried on the repair job without taking much risk. The duo added 50 runs in nearly 25 overs as they took the lead close to 100 runs.
Just when it looked that the pair would survive the final half an hour, man-of-the-hour Martin struck again as he got one to lift and the Indian captain who tried to play it down only managing to hit the bottom of his bat onto the off-stump.
Earlier in the day, a sudden collapse resulted in New Zealand losing their bottom half for 42 runs after threatening to overtake the Indian total when they were at 417 for five.
Williamson was caught in the slips off Ojha on the stroke of lunch.
The youngster who has had a memorable debut scored 131 runs with the help of 10 boundaries in 299 deliveries. The best part about Williamson's innings was he stayed at the wicket for 391 minutes which is a shade over six and half hours.
Part time off-spinner Raina dismissed rival captain Daniel Vettori for 41 before Hopkins was sent back by Ojha.
New ball bowlers Shantakumaran Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan later packed off Jeetan Patel and Hamish Bennett respectively to terminate the visitors' first innings 28 runs short of hosts' total of 487.
Brief scores
India 487 and 82 for 6 (Martin 5-31)
New Zealand 459 (Williamson 131, Ryder 103, McCullum 65, Taylor 56, Ojha 4-107)
Status India lead by 110 runs
