Auckland: Skipper Brendon McCullum's sparkling double century helped New Zealand reach a commanding first innings score of 503 despite a six-wicket haul by speedster Ishant Sharma at the innings break on the second day of the second cricket Test here today.
McCullum played a captain's knock scoring 224 off 307 balls with the help of 29 boundaries and five huge sixes as New Zealand were finally all-out in 121.4 overs. Ishant on the otherhand got his fourth five-for in Test cricket ending with figures of six for 134 in 33.4 overs.
The New Zealand captain was the last man out when Ravindra Jadeja did brilliant balancing act to catch at the ropes.
This was McCullum's second double century in Tests and also became the fourth Black Caps player to achieve the feat of scoring two or more double hundred in Tests. He joined Stephen Fleming, Glenn Turner and Matthew Sinclair in the list.
Out of the six wickets that fell today with an addituon of 174 runs, Ishant took four while Jadeja (1/120) and Mohammed Shami (1/96) shared the remaining two. Zaheer Khan (2/132) didn't add to his overnight tally.
Starting from the overnight score of 329/4, it didn't take much time for McCullum and Corey Anderson (77) to get going as their fifth wicket stand yielded 133 runs.
Despite overcast conditions again, they were on top of the Indian bowling from the very outset, looking to score as many runs as possible. In the third over of the day, the skipper brought up his 150-run mark, while in the next one, Anderson reached his half-century, off 88 balls, with seven fours and one six.
Indeed the left-handed batsman looked more ominous scoring 26 runs off the first 21 balls he faced in the day. He was especially hard on Ishant, clobbering him for three fours in the 96th over, quickly moving on into the sixties.
Perhaps that led to the next bit of action as Ishant changed his line in the 100th over, coming around the wicket, and was able to get a leg before decision in his favour.
