India battling on to save the Napier Test

Napier, March 30 (IANS) India's fight to save the second cricket Test continued despite losing the important wicket of Sachin Tendulkar early on the fifth day as they went to lunch at 306 for three in their second innings here at McLean Park Monday.

India, forced to follow on after being dismissed for 305 in the first innings in reply to New Zealand's 619 for nine declared, still trail by eight runs.

India added 54 runs to their overnight 252 for two in the first session and at the beak opener Gautam Gambhir was still there after nine hours on 119 and with him was Laxman on 30. Tendulkar was out for 64 caught behind off Chris Martin after adding 97 with Gambhir for the third wicket.

Brief scores:

New Zealand 619 for 9 decl. (Ross Taylor 151, Jesse Ryder 201, James Franklin 52, Brendon McCullum 115, Daniel Vettori 55)

Zaheer Khan 3 for 129, Ishant Sharma 3 for 95, Harbhajan Singh 2 for 120, India 305 (Virender Sehwag 34, Rahul Dravid 83, Sachin Tendulkar 49, V.V.S. Laxman 76) Chris Martin 3 for 89, Daniel Vettori 2 for 45, Iain O'Brien 2 for 66, Jeetan patel 2 for 60 and 306 for 3 (Gautam Gambhir batting 119, Virender Sehwag 22, Rahul Dravid 62, Sachin Tendulkar 64, V. V. S. Laxman batting 30).