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The second day of ongoing 1st Test between India and New Zealand in Kanpur did not really go according to the plan for the home side. As Ajinkya Rahane's side kicked off the day from a string position, a quick flurry of wickets meant that India were bundled out on 345 despite Iyer scoring a magnificent hundred on his debut.
Although it was a decent total, it was going to be a challenging task for the bowlers on a wicket which looked quite good for batting. There was not much assistance for the bowlers in first innings as well and it was a splendid effort by pace bowling duo of Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee which got New Zealand wickets at regular intervals.
As India came out on the field, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav failed to make much impact as the Kiwi openers looked quite comfortable against them. Very soon, the spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja was also out in the middle but surprisingly, they also failed to trouble the pair of Tom Latham and Will Young.
Unorthodox fielding position for Mayank Agarwal in Kanpur
The bowlers were getting frustrated and it soon transpired into an argument between the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin and umpire Nitin Menon. The incident happened in the 47th over of NZ innings, being bowled by Axar Patel, when the umpire presumably gave a warning to Mayank Agarwal for sitting on his knees while fielding at gully.
But it supposedly did not go down well with Ashwin who went to the umpire and had a lengthy discussion regarding the issue. The off-spinner certainly did not look happy with the fact that umpire was stopping the fielder from sitting, with Mayank also claiming that he had done that in past.
Notably, he was doing so to ensure he was in the right position to take a catch off any edge because there was lack of bounce on wicket at Green Park. As it turned out, the umpire supposedly accepted the case presented by Ashwin and Mayank as the latter was allowed to sit on his knees once again on the subsequent delivery bowled by Axar.
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However, the tactics by India did not really got them the desired results on Friday as New Zealand ended Day 2 at 129/0, with both their openers - Tom Latham and Will Young - scoring fifties.