KANPUR: Indian spinners Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin destroyed New Zealand’s batting line-up to dismiss them for 296.

India took the lead of 63 runs against New Zealand at the stumps on day 3. The Blue Caps started their innings with the 49-runs lead and scored 14/1 at the end of the day. Kylie Jamieson provided an early breakthrough to his side as he dismissed Shubman gill for just 5. Mayank Agarwal (4*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (9*) will resume the proceedings for India on day 4.

Resuming at the overnight score of 129/0, Black Caps’ set opening pair Tom Latham and Will Young stretched their opening stand to 151 before Ravichandran Ashwin got Young for 89. Latham was looking firm at one end but the Kiwis lost their second wicket as their skipper Kane Williamson departed without scoring much as the batter only scored 18 and was trapped in legs by Umesh Yadav.

Indian bowlers started to shift the pressure on to the Kiwis and they started to play a little too much defensive yet began to lose wickets in a constant fashion. New Zealand lost their last nine wickets for just 99 runs.

Latham was their top-scorer as he missed out on his century by just five runs and was dismissed by Axar for 95 runs.

Axar was the stand-out performer for India as the spinner bagged five-wickets haul and initiated the collapse. Ashwin on the other was also very clinical as he dismissed three batters. Ravindra Jadeja and Yadav took one wicket each.

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