By IANS,
Hamilton : India will have to seize the initiative early in the first session of the second cricket Test against New Zealand here Friday, according to former skipper Rahul Dravid.
After the close of Thursday’s play, India, with six wickets in hand, trail by one run in reply to New Zealand’s first innings total of 279.
Dravid, who steered India’s innings with a patient 66 and was involved in a 105-run stand with Gautam Gambhir (72), said the batsmen will have to put a price tag to their wicket in the morning.
“We’d probably have liked to have lost one less wicket for the day. That would have been an ideal scenario for us. If we bat well in the first session, and build a lead, we can put the pressure on them in the third innings,” Dravid said Thursday.
“Sachin is still batting really well and Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh), (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni, the lower order can all bat.”
Dravid said India lost the plot a bit after reducing New Zealand to 60 for six, but are happy with the position they are in the Test.
“Obviously, from 60 for six, you would have liked to think we would be in a better position, but we’ll take this. At the end of the second day, if someone said we would be one run behind with six wickets in hand, we would have taken it.”
On his own batting, Dravid said: “I really felt good today. My feet really moved well, and I got into the right position right through the day. I was scoring at a fairly decent clip. I got a pretty good delivery at that stage; the ball was still seaming a bit even after it was 60-65 overs old.”
“Let’s take it session by session, one day at a time. We have got our noses ahead at the end of day two. Let’s win a few more sessions and then start thinking about it day by day,” he said.