The 2nd test Match between India and New Zealand will begin in Napier from Thursday, Mar 26, 09, Start time 10.30am local (21.30 GMT) India time 3 am

India have a wonderful opportunity to pull off a series win in New Zealand. They have not won a series for the last 40 years there .

India won the 1st test at Hamilton and lead the 3 match series 1-0. New Zealand have never won a test match at Napier.

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Team News

India are likely to go in with an unchanged squad which played the 1st test, while NZ will play Jeetan Patel  instead of either Kyle Mills or James Franklin, Daniel Flynn and Iain O’Brien are expected to be fit in time for the match even though they are having minor injuries

Pitch and Conditions

The McLean Park wicket had been affected by fungus so it had to be moved  two to three feet sideways, Now the new track includes half the original pitch and half of the adjacent one

Phil Stoyanoff, the chief curator, said  “There is always a little bit in it in the first session, and then it pans out to be an absolute belter, and has good consistent bounce,” Stoyanoff said. “Lot of runs get scored here.”

Napier Weather

Almost picture perfect weather with plenty of sunshine is predicted throughout the 5 days of the Test match

India (likely): 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Munaf Patel.

New Zealand (likely): 1 Tim McIntosh, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Daniell Flynn/Jamie How, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Jesse Ryder, 6 James Franklin, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Jeetan Patel, 10 Iain O’Brien, 11 Chris Martin.

Quotes

“We need our batsmen to bat 120 overs, we need our bowlers to be consistent for longer, and we need to lift ourselves in the field. It’s every part of the game, and if we don’t do that we will get the same result as we did in Hamilton.”
Vettori spells out what New Zealand need to do in Napier.

“One of the first milestones we have achieved is to take the lead, now it’s important to play the same kind of cricket in the second and third game,” Dhoni on needing to keep up the same intensity to seal the series

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