New Zealand struggle at 108 for three at lunch

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Indian bowlers picked up early wickets to leave New Zealand struggling at 108 for three at lunch on the opening day of the second Test match at the Chinnaswamy stadium here on Friday.

The Kiwi batsmen had a tough time negotiating the Indian attack during the first session, which was mostly played under lights.

The pacers, especially Zaheer Khan, used the prevailing condition to the team's advantage.

At lunch, Ross Taylor and Daniel Flynn were unbeaten on 27 and 7 respectively.

Electing to bat, New Zealand got off to a poor start, losing Brendon McCullum in the second over with the visitors yet to open their account.

After McCullum's exit, Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson played watchfully and managed to accumulate runs against pacers Zaheer and Umesh Yadav.

While Guptill seemed to be in all sorts of trouble negotiating the Indian attack, which extracted some bounce in the first hour, Williamson played with confidence.

Guptill got a reprieve on 17 when Virat Kohli in the third slip failed to latch on to an outer edge off Zaheer's bowling.

He got lucky once again when he edged the ball that flew right of the diving Virender Sehwag in slips.

After New Zealand crossed 50, Guptill belted three boundaries in an over of Yadav and soon reached his half-century, carving one to third man fence. He faced 62 balls to get to fifty with eight hits to the fence.

Williamson, meanwhile, failed to sustain and got trapped LBW by Ojha, who had him for the third time in three innings on this tour.

Williamson scored 17 runs off 44 balls with the help pf two boundaries.

Guptill tried to attack the spinners but ended up giving a simple catch to Gautam Gambhir at midwicket off Ojha. He departed for a brisk 79-ball 53.

Earlier, India decided to field the same team that defeated the Kiwis by an innings and 115 runs in the first Test at Hyderabad.

The Black Caps brought in pacer Tim Southee in place of Chris Martin.