MUMBAI: India spinner Ravindra Jadeja took three wickets including two in one over to leave New Zealand 192-6 at tea on day one of the third and final Test in Mumbai.
Will Young hit 71 after the visitors elected to bat in a bid to sweep the series at Wankhede Stadium, where the pitch has already offered turn to the spinners.
But he fell to left-arm spinner Jadeja in the afternoon and at the break Daryl Mitchell had struggled to 53 in the Mumbai heat, with Ish Sodhi for company with one.
Spinner Washington Sundar took two early wickets before Young put on a stubborn 87-run fourth-wicket stand with Mitchell.
Young reached his fifty soon after lunch with a straight six off Sundar.
Jadeja eventually got Young caught at slip and struck again in the space of four deliveries when wicketkeeper Tom Blundell was bowled for a duck.
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He later bowled Glenn Phillips for 17 after Mitchell reached his fifty.
Fast bowler Akash Deep drew first blood when he trapped left-handed opener Devon Conway lbw for four in the fourth over of the day.
New Zealand skipper Tom Latham, who made 28, and Young then attempted to steady the innings in a partnership of 44 for the second wicket, before Sundar broke through.
Off-spinner Sundar came around the wicket to the left-handed Latham, who came forward to defend a delivery that pitched and straightened to rattle the off-stump.
Sundar again brought the crowd to their feet when he bowled left-handed Rachin Ravindra – who leads the batting charts in the series with 252 runs – for five.
The Black Caps sealed a first-ever Test series triumph on Indian soil last week with victory in the second match in Pune.
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