Heavy rain forced match officials to call off the final session’s play on the second day of the first cricket Test between India and New Zealand at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur on Friday.
Tom Latham (56 batting) and Kane Williamson (66 batting) were the two New Zealand batsmen holding fort in the middle with the visitors on 152/1 in their first innings in response to India’s first innings total of 318 runs.
New Zealand now trail the hosts by 166 runs with nine wickets remaining.
Latham has hit five boundaries so far during his patient 137-ball stay in the middle while Williamson has managed to find the ropes seven times in his 115-ball knock.
Fast bowler Umesh Yadav was the only Indian to bag a wicket, trapping Guptill leg before for figures of 1/22.
Rain played spoilsport just as the players were about to leave the field for tea with a steady drizzle forcing the groundsmen to bring the covers out.
The resumption of play was subsequently postponed for an indefinite period.
With the rain continuing to lash the ground more than an hour after the tea interval, the match officials eventually decided to call it a day.
Earlier, India was bowled out for 318 runs in the opening session of Day Two of the first Test against New Zealand at the Green Park stadium here on Friday.
The Men in Blue scored 27 runs in seven overs to get past the 300-run mark in their historic 500th Test.
Resuming the day on 291, Ravindra Jadeja scored unbeaten 42 from 44 balls with seven boundaries and a six, putting on an invaluable stand of 41 runs for the final wicket with Umesh Yadav, who survived 15 balls before gloving a short ball from pacer Wagner to the wicket-keeper BJ Watling for nine runs.
For New Zealand, spinner Santner and pacer Trent Boult claimed three wickets each, while Wagner bagged a couple and Ish Sodhi and Craig got one wicket a piece.
India will now look up to their spinners — Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja — to keep the home team’s unbeaten streak at Green Park intact.
