New Zealand opener Tom Latham had become the biggest obstacle in India’s victory in the first Test of the two-match series between the two sides going on at Kanpur until he was dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin. The left-hander hit his second fifty of the match, the second one becoming even more crucial than the first one.
Latham who opened the innings with Will Young in the last hour of the final session of the fourth day in the ongoing game remained on the crease and held on to one end. He first put up a 76 run partnership with nightwatchman William Somerville. That partnership consumed 32 overs and the 29-year-old created yet another partnership with Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson. This partnership lasted 39 runs and 113 balls.
Latham chopped the ball into his own stumps on 52 off 146 balls, trying to cut a wide ball. In the first innings, he missed out on a hundred, getting dismissed agonisingly on 95, only five runs away from what would have been a great century.
New Zealand are currently 166 runs away from the win if at all they are looking for a win. But crucially they have lost only three wickets and have 40 more overs to play out today to get a hard-earned draw.