Amid much cloud, Ashish Nehra provided a faint glimmer of silver. Nehra's talent has never been in doubt, but his temperament has always been suspect. His bowling has been too indisciplined in the past, but in his fine 10-over spell in the morning session, he redeemed himself magnificently. He took 3 for 15 in that spell, and got India right back into the game. To begin with, his length was spot on. As many as 36 of the 60 balls he bowled were on a good length, and a further 19 were on a testing just-short-of-good-length. Add to that a yorker, and you have an impressive 93% of deliveries bowled that were difficult to get away.

His line was also impeccable. He pitched 23 balls in the corridor just outside off, but a much larger number of deliveries passed the bat in that corridor: he bowled 22 deliveries from over the wicket to the right-handers which pitched between off and leg and either passed by outside off inviting the edge, or straightened disconcertingly, as in the case of Craig McMillan's lbw dismissal.

Complementing his control of line and length was the variety he got in terms of movement. He bowled 11 incoming deliveries, 8 which left the bat and the rest were straight – just enough to constantly keep the batsmen guessing. It was stirring stuff, but one man alone couldn't bowl New Zealand out, and the lack of support for Nehra cost India the match.

Amit Varma is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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