New Zealand coach Andy Moles last night bullishly maintained the second test against India can be won today.
It's an uphill job on a placid batting pitch.
India is still 62 behind overall with eight wickets standing. But Moles was pleased with what he saw from his bowlers yesterday.
"We
stuck to the task very well during the day," he said. "There's still only one team turning up tomorrow who can win the test and it's not often we've been in that position."
India had shown a weak batting tail in the first innings, during which the last six wickets fell for just 59 runs. "They've got a magnificent front five or six batsmen but after that, if we bowl well and things go our way, we can get wickets."
Moles was adamant that making India, who were 314 behind, follow on was the right move and pointed out "good teams spend a lot of time in the field".
"It's about getting big scores and, where you can, making the opposition follow on. We've got to get used to it if we are going to become a good test side."
Moles said given the state of the pitch, it was more a case of "looking for mistakes from the batters as opposed to the ball misbehaving on the last day as you'd normally like to see".
Indian batsman Rahul Dravid described the day as "a big step, a very good day for us" in their battle to save the match.
"We are pretty disappointed in the way we played for the first three days. Now we have got half the job done. We needed some character and showed that today," he said, praising opener Gautam Gambhir's resolute 102 not out as providing just that quality India required.
