Lucky Williamson gets first hand lesson in tough batting

Kane Williamson was the proverbial cat with nine lives on Friday as he top scored for New Zealand with 47 against a fired up Indian pace attack keen on exploiting what they could from a green and bouncy Basin Reserve pitch.

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New Zealand were bundled out for 192 in their first innings after tea on the first day of the second test and the visitors, who need to win the match to level the series, were 100 for two at the close of play with Shikhar Dhawan on 71 not out.

Ishant Sharma had taken career-best figures of 6-51 to run through New Zealand's batting lineup, and, but for Williamson's innings, and his luck, and some lower-order resistance from debutant Jimmy Neesham (33) and Tim Southee (32), they could have been in worse shape.

The luck was in the form of Williamson given out twice to close-in catches, only to be recalled as umpires Steve Davis and Richard Kettleborough asked the television official to check for no balls.

"It was nice but it didn't make the wicket any flatter," Williamson said when asked about his luck.

On both occasions, the first when Williamson was on 15 and New Zealand 50-4 in the final over before lunch and the second after the break when he was on 23 and New Zealand 87-6, the bowlers' heels were just over the line and he was recalled.

"Spending more time out there still meant it was as hard as for anyone else out there.

"You never felt in but it's nice when a bit of luck goes your way. It shows you need to keep your foot behind the line."

Williamson praised the Indian pace trio of Ishant, Zaheer Khan and Mohammed Shami, who finished with 4-70, for exploiting the conditions to run through the New Zealanders for the second successive innings.

The hosts were bundled out for 105 in the second innings of the first test at EdenPark and then held on to win the match by 40 runs.

"Batting first on that track was tough and I saw it first hand how tough it was," Williamson said. "It's one of those situations where you know you've probably got a ball with your name on it.

"You never felt in and they bowled very well and picked up where they left off in Auckland so credit to their bowling attack.

"We expected it to be tough. We played on one as green against West Indies (in December) but they didn't bowl as well as India, they bowled very short."

New Zealand had been forced to bat first on the green wicket after India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni had won his seventh successive toss against counterpart Brendon McCullum.

The New Zealand captain had said he would have bowled first too, had he been able to win the toss.

"That's not a bad idea," Williamson laughed when asked if New Zealand would consider someone else to do their next toss.

"Geez, that would have been a nice to win I think.

"I suppose he's due to win one so that's a positive thing. It has been uncanny, not winning the toss the whole series is just ridiculous."