Skipper Latham led from the front as he blunted the Indian spinners with ease but New Zealand batters deserved full credit for executing their plans.
The Kiwis’ batters were formidable in defence while they rotated the strike deftly to keep pressure on the Indians.
Latham did well to raise hopes for a first century since December 2022 but Washington Sundar ended his progress at 86 off 133 balls with 10 fours.
Every added run tightened the screws further on India whose spinners appeared to have been out-bowled by their Kiwi counterparts.
While Sundar completed his maiden 10-for in Tests with 4/56 after his 7/59 in the first innings, R Ashwin took 1/64.
Ravindra Jadeja (11-1-50-0) continued to be wicket-less in the game wherein spinners have ruled the roost.
While Santner’s orthodox spin tested the Indians’ defence and resolve, India’s failure to rotate strike added to their woes.
The biggest shock for India in the day arrived in the 24th over when their batting superstar Virat Kohli missed a juicy full toss from Santner to be cleaned up for a nine-ball one.
The sight of Kohli missing an innocuous full toss angling into his wickets, going past his awkwardly swinging bat to crash into the middle and leg stumps and leaving the batter stare at the ground beneath him in utter despair, was something that will linger for some time to come.
Yashasvi Jaiswal had done fairly well to reach 30 with four boundaries but going with hard hands to defend a delivery outside off, spinning away from his bat to take an edge to the first slip, gave Glenn Phillips his first wicket.
If that wasn’t enough, Rishabh Pant’s (18) failure to read the lack of bounce while going for a mighty heave across the line against the part-time spin of Phillips, resulted in the ball crashing into his off-stump, leaving India in a desperate situation at 83 for five.
Sarfaraz Khan (11), whose recent outings include 222 not out in Irani Cup and 150 in the last innings at Bengaluru, only had himself to blame after recklessly hitting one straight to mid-off for William O’Rourke to grab an easy catch, off Santner.
