Skipper Ross Taylor blasted an unbeaten 112 to lead New Zealand’s fightback as the visitors reached 240 for five in their first innings at tea on the opening day of the second cricket Test against India at Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Friday.

Taylor scripted his seventh Test century. He was batting on 112 made off 119 balls and his new partner Kruger van Wyk was on seven at tea.

Resuming play after lunch, both Taylor and Daniel Flynn played aggressively, dispatching loose deliveries as Indian bowlers struggled to contain the run flow.

Taylor was especially severe on Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha, and to some extent Zaheer Khan, clobbering them all over the park.

In an over, the Kiwi skipper belted four boundaries in Ojha’s over and raced to his 17th Test half century which came off 46 balls.

Flynn supported his skipper to put on their first 100 runs partnership of the match. Both stitched a brisk 107 runs partnership in 113 balls taking New Zealand to a respectable score of 196 for three.

There was a setback for New Zealand when the dangerous-looking partnership was broken by Ashwin trapping Flynn for his individual score of 33 runs which was studded with six boundaries.

After the departure of Flynn, pacer Umesh Yadav and Ashwin tightened the screws and dried the run flow of the Kiwis, which resulted in losing James Franklin cheaply for eight runs.

Ojha picked his third wicket when Suresh Raina manning the midwicket area took a splendid diving catch.

At lunch, Taylor and Daniel Flynn were unbeaten on 27 and 7, respectively.

Earlier electing to bat, New Zealand got off to a poor start, losing Brendon McCullum in the second over with the visitors yet to open their account.

Brief Scores:

New Zealand 1st Innings: 240/5 in 59 overs (Ross Taylor 112 batting, Martin Guptill 53, Pragyan Ojha 3/67).