KOLKATA: Indian fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar said he was in dreamland on Saturday after his debut five-wicket haul at home left New Zealand tottering at 128 for seven on day two of the second Test in Kolkata.

At stumps after a rain-hit day’s play at Eden Gardens, the Black Caps were still trailing India, who posted 316 in their first innings, by 188 runs with BJ Watling on 12 and Jeetan Patel on 5 battling to survive.

Getting good support from new-ball partner Mohammed Shami, who struck first with the wicket of opener Tom Latham, Kumar made life difficult for the visiting batsmen.

The 26-year-old Kumar recorded his fourth five-wicket haul in 15th Test, but it was also his first on home soil.

“It was one of my dreams to take five wickets in India. When I saw that the wicket would help me, I told myself I want to take five wickets,” Kumar told India’s Star Sports television network. “In India you rarely get this kind of wicket that helps the pacers, so I wanted to make full use of it, I really wanted to make use of the opportunity and I’m very happy with how I bowled.”

Martin Guptill, who is in the middle of a woeful run of form, was bowled for 13 by a beautiful Kumar delivery that left the batsman in two minds.

Stand-in-skipper Ross Taylor (36) and Luke Ronchi (35) managed 62 runs for the fourth wicket to put up some resistance but Ravindra Jadeja had other ideas.

Left-arm spinner Jadeja broke through Ronchi’s defences after trapping the batsman lbw, although television replays suggested that the ball may have missed the leg stump.

Ronchi failed to capitalise on a reprieve when he was on 16 when substitute fielder Gautam Gambhir dropped the ball at point off Shami.

A nearly two-and-a-half hour rain interruption, which forced an early tea, did not change New Zealand’s fortunes as the visitors lost three wickets in the final session.

“It’s important that we get those three wickets early tomorrow morning and it would be nice if we do better in the second innings,” India’s wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha, who notched a half century earlier in the day, told reporters after stumps.

Kumar got Taylor caught at first slip on another one of his deliveries that had the right line and length.

Kumar wreaked havoc in the 33rd over the innings to pick up two wickets — Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry — off consecutive deliveries only to miss out on a hat-trick.

Watling and Patel then played through the final few overs of the day under murky conditions before umpires called bad light.

Earlier the hosts, who started the day on 239 for seven, were bolstered by Saha’s unbeaten 54, which included 7 fours and 2 sixes.

Saha and Jadeja, who scored 14, put on 41 for the eighth wicket to add some useful runs to the team’s first innings score.

“They are making runs at the end of the innings, which had made a difference. Today they were 240 overnight and then they made 300 and whatever, that’s a big chunk of runs from the last three wickets,” said Ronchi.

Saha, who registered his third Test fifty in 17 matches, looked in fine form but ran out of partners at the other end.

New Zealand recalled pacer Henry claimed three wickets while Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Jeetan Patel took two each.

Scoreboard

INDIA (1st Innings, overnight 239-7):

S. Dhawan b Henry 1 M. Vijay c Watling b Henry 9 C.A. Pujara c Guptill b Wagner 87 V. Kohli c Latham b Boult 9 A.M. Rahane lbw b Patel 77 R.G. Sharma c Latham b Patel 2 R. Ashwin lbw b Henry 26 W.P. Saha not out 54 R.A. Jadeja c Henry b Wagner 14 B. Kumar lbw b Santner 5 Mohammed Shami c Henry b Boult 14

EXTRAS (B-8, LB-10) 18

TOTAL (all out, 104.5 overs) 316

FALL OF WKTS: 1-1, 2-28, 3-46, 4-187, 5-193, 6-200, 7-231, 8-272, 9-281.

BOWLING: Boult 20.5-9-46-2; Henry 20-6-46-3; Wagner 20-5-57-2; Santner 23-5-83-1; Patel 21-3-66-2.

NEW ZEALAND (1st Innings):

M.J. Guptill b Kumar 13 T.W.M. Latham lbw b Shami 1 H.M. Nicholls b Kumar 1 L.R. P.L. Taylor c Vijay b Kumar 36 L. Ronchi lbw b Jadeja 35 M.J. Santner lbw b Kumar 11 B.J. Watling not out 12 M.J. Henry b Kumar 0 J.S. Patel not out 5

EXTRAS (B-5, LB-4, W-5) 14

TOTAL (for seven wkts; 34 overs) 128

FALL OF WKTS: 1-10, 2-18, 3-23, 4-85, 5-104, 6-122, 7-122.

TO BAT: N. Wagner, T.A. Boult.

BOWLING (to-date): Kumar 10-0-33-5; Mohammed Shami 11-0-46-1 (1w); Jadeja 8-3-17-1; Ashwin 5-2-23-0.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2016