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Bangalore: A buoyant India will bank on their spin twins to sweep the short series against struggling New Zealand when the second and final Test starts in Bangalore on Friday.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took 12 wickets and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha six as India underlined their supremacy on home soil by winning the first Test in Hyderabad by an innings and 115 runs.
Ross Taylor's Black Caps collapsed twice against the spin duo, managing just 159 in the first innings and 164 in the second, with only Kane Williamson (52) scoring a half-century in the match for the out-played tourists.
Ashwin and Ojha, both 25, also played major roles in India's victory in the last home Test series, against the West Indies in November 2011, sharing 42 wickets in three matches.
India broke little sweat in Hyderabad, their first Test after the retirement of batting veterans Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, as the batsmen posted 438 in the first innings before their spinners took over.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's home team will be hot favourites to start the new season with a 2-0 series win, following their dismal show in the past 12 months when they lost eight successive overseas Tests in England and Australia.
India expect Ashwin and Ojha to continue their excellent form and build on the early success in the busy home season, which also features four Test matches each against England and Australia.
Cheteshwar Pujara's form ahead of tougher assignments against England and Australia also is good for India, who are looking for Dravid's replacement at the vital number-three position.
Pujara, 24, impressed with his temperament and technique in only his fourth Test, as he hit a maiden Test century (159) in Hyderabad to help his side post a big total.
But middle-order batsman Suresh Raina, who replaced Laxman, needs to deliver in Bangalore after contributing just three in the last match.
New Zealand will hope for a much improved performance from their batsmen against spin if they are to avoid a second successive Test series defeat. They lost both Tests in the West Indies before this tour.
Only Williamson and opener Brendon McCullum offered any resistance in the second innings at Hyderabad, allowing India to win comfortably with a day to spare.
The Black Caps will also be keen to put in a better bowling performance in what will be their bowling coach Damien Wright's last Test.
Wright, an Australian who was only appointed in July last year, announced Tuesday he would quit after next month's World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka for family reasons.
It was a further blow to the tourists, who have lost four of their seven Tests this year, with just one win and two draws.
Teams from:
India: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (captain & wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, S Badrinath, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkya Rahane
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor (captain), Daniel Flynn, James Franklin, Kruger van Wyk (wk), Doug Bracewell, Jeetan Patel, Trent Boult, Chris Martin, Tarun Nethula, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling
Pitch and conditions
The Chinnaswamy track isn't expected to be as spin-friendly as the one in Hyderabad last week, and the quicker bowlers are likely to have more of a role to play. The big concern for the organisers, though, is the weather. There have been evening showers over the past few days in Bangalore, and the predictions are for rains over the weekend as well.
Stats and trivia
Match facts
August 31-September 4, 2012
Start time 0930 local (0400 GMT)
