Kohli, Rahane put India in control

An unbroken partnership of 167 between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, the highest of the series so far, put India in control at the end of Indore's first day of Test cricket. Kohli ended the day on 103, his 13th Test hundred. It was by no means his most enthralling innings, but it was utterly dominant in that he gave New Zealand no inch on a largely attritional day. Rahane, less certain, gutsed it out to stay unbeaten on 79 and India were 267 for 3.

Having come together at 100 for 3, with the match in the balance, Kohli and Rahane gradually asserted India's dominance in front of an enthusiastic crowd numbering over 18,000. Having started watchfully - they added 48 in 20 overs before tea - they grew increasingly fluent, scoring 119 in the final session in 34 overs, at exactly three-and-a-half runs an over.

All five of New Zealand's bowlers were disciplined and had well-thought-out plans, but there was little help for them off a pitch that wasn't the greatest to look at, with cracks all over its surface, but played more or less true on the first day, if a little slow. The offspinner Jeetan Patel was their best bowler, but his figures - 1 for 65 off 24 overs - told a story: he frequently beat the batsmen in the air, but they usually managed to adjust since it didn't turn all that much or all that quickly once it landed.

Kohli came into the match with scores of 44, 3, 4, 9, 18, 9 and 45 in his last seven Test innings, but the last of them, in Kolkata, had been a superb display of footwork and judgment on a pitch with uneven bounce. It suggested he wasn't really out of form.

Again, in Indore, he avoided the extravagant shots that had got him out in his first three innings of the series, and accumulated steadily, blending into the background for most part. He didn't offer any clear chances, and the two times he edged the ball, it eluded the fielders: on 39, drift caused him to edge Patel between keeper and slip; on 69, he reached out at a wide-ish length ball from James Neesham, and edged through a vacant first slip.

Otherwise, New Zealand could see no way past him and, every now and again, he roused the crowd with his strokeplay. There were a couple of his trademark extra-cover drives, but his most breathtaking shots on the day came on the leg side: a checked pull off Trent Boult, when he adjusted to the ball staying lower than expected; a back-foot whip to the right of midwicket, against the turn, off Mitchell Santner; a clip off the legs, off Boult, that bisected square leg and long leg. All three times, the ball sped away effortlessly, testament both to the quickness of the outfield and to Kohli's timing.

Rahane endured a few nervous moments against the short ball. Twice - on 3 by Matt Henry and on 25 by Neesham - he lifted his hands instinctively to protect his face, and was lucky the ball hit his arm guard on both occasions rather than his glove. On 7, he top-edged a pull as Boult went around the wicket and angled a short ball into his body, and saw the ball fall inches wide of Henry rushing in from the square leg boundary. On 41, he kept his gloves and bat out of the way of a Henry bouncer, but couldn't move his upper-body across quickly enough to evade it, and took a blow to the back. There were a number of other times when he ducked or swayed awkwardly, with eyes off the ball, as well.

But a good batsman makes runs even in discomfort, and Rahane did not let these moments affect him. His defence was solid, and he got his head right on top of the ball while striding forward to the spinners - a failure to do so had cost him his wicket twice in Kanpur. Occasionally, he served up a reminder of his timing, such as when he lofted Patel back over his head and when he drove Santner inside-out to the cover boundary. He went past fifty with a six, stepping out to Patel, not quite reaching the pitch of the ball, but adjusting by playing with an almost horizontal bat to swat the ball over wide long-on.

Given the look of the surface, India seemed to gain an early advantage when they won their third toss of the series and their eighth in a row in home Tests. Batting, by general consensus, would be easiest on days one and two. But India didn't really press their advantage in the first two sessions, despite their batsmen looking fairly comfortable in the middle.

The crowd was treated to an entertaining start as M Vijay drove Boult on the up for two fours through the covers in the third over of the morning, and Gautam Gambhir, returning to the Test side after two years to replace the injured Shikhar Dhawan, pulled Henry for successive sixes in the fourth over. Kane Williamson, back in charge of New Zealand after missing the Kolkata Test with illness, brought Patel on in the fifth over, and he struck with his fifth ball, getting it to dip on Vijay, who looked to flick a long way in front of his body and gave Tom Latham the chance to pull off a juggling reflex catch at short leg.

There was little turn on offer for Patel and Santner, who bowled from both ends till the 11th over, and Cheteshwar Pujara and Gambhir settled down nicely before Boult and Henry came back into the attack. The quicks changed their lengths to Gambhir in their second spells, bowling noticeably fuller and trying to exploit the left-hander's tendency to shuffle across his crease. He grew quieter against this mode of attack, scoring only two runs in 20 balls before he was lbw to Boult, bringing his bat down at an angle to a full one that nipped in slightly.

Pujara looked serene through to lunch, using his feet to the spinners, getting nicely on top of the rising ball against the quicks, putting the bad ball away, and showing more willingness than in Kolkata - given the lack of turn or seam movement off this surface - to change the angle of his bat face to look for singles on both sides of the pitch.

After lunch, however, both he and Kohli had to work hard for their runs as Patel settled into a good rhythm. He caused both batsmen problems, bellowing out an lbw appeal after Kohli went back to a quicker one on a good length - the ball striking his pad just outside the line - and throwing his hands up in the air when Pujara came down the track, failed to cover for drift, and edged a defensive push through backward point.

It was Santner, though, who gave New Zealand the breakthrough, in the second over of a new spell. Firing one in just short of a good length, he caused indecision in Pujara, who pressed half-forward, and then went halfway back and ended up caught on the crease as the ball spun sharply past his defensive bat and hit his off stump.