HARBHAJAN Singh’s first century in any form of cricket earned India a hard-fought draw in the first Test against New Zealand in Ahmedabad. At 15 for five and 65 for six on Sunday evening, India appeared to be staring defeat in the face, but VVS Laxman (91) and Harbhajan, who recorded his second Test-best score of the match in reaching 115, put on 163 to see their side towards a second-innings total of 266.
New Zealand strolled to 22 for one before the teams shook hands at the start of the last hour.
With Hamish Bennett unable to bowl because of a groin strain, New Zealand were left with just one frontline seamer in Chris Martin, but he could not recreate the form which brought him five wickets on Sunday.
A single from Harbhajan two balls after lunch took his partnership with Laxman into three figures, and he lofted two superb inside-out boundaries to further improve on his first-innings mark of 69.
Their superb match-saving stand was finally ended in highly controversial fashion when Laxman was given out lbw for 91 despite getting a huge inside edge on Daniel Vettori’s arm-ball. The 36-year-old hit nine fours in 253 balls.
Umpire Steve Davis appeared to blunder again next ball as Zaheer Khan was sent on his way in similar fashion to leave India 228 for eight.
Harbhajan shrugged off the double setback by launching Vettori over wide long-off for six to reach his century in style. It came from 165 balls, with 10 fours and two sixes.
The part-time spin of Ross Taylor accounted for the last two wickets shortly after tea, with Harbhajan top-edging a full toss to BJ Watling at short fine leg before Shanthakumaran Sreesanth edged one behind.
New Zealand, chasing 295 from 24 overs which was never a realistic prospect, lost Tim McIntosh for his second duck of the match, trapped lbw by Zaheer, but otherwise reached the close with no concerns. (PA Sport)

INDIA first innings 487 (V. Sehwag 173, R. Dravid 104, H. Singh 69; D. Vettori 4-118)
New Zealand first innings 459 (B. McCullum 65,
R. Taylor 56, J. Ryder 103, K. Williamson 131; P. Ojha 4-107)

INDIA second innings (overnight 82-6)
G. Gambhir c Hopkins b Martin 0
V. Sehwag run-out 1
R. Dravid c Hopkins b Martin 1
S. Tendulkar b Martin 12
VVS Laxman lbw b Vettori 91
S. Raina c Taylor b Martin 0
MS Dhoni b Martin 22
H. Singh c Watling b Taylor 115
Z. Khan lbw b Vettori 0
P. Ojha not out 9
S. Sreesanth c Hopkins b Taylor 4
Extras (b-10, nb-1)    11
Total: (all out, 102.4 overs)    266
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-15, 5-15, 6-65, 7-228, 8-228, 9-260.
Bowling: Martin 27-8-63-5 (nb-1), Vettori 38-8-81-2, Patel 23-1-72-0, Williamson 4-0-18-0, Taylor 4.4-2-4-2, McCullum 6-1-18-0.

NEW ZEALAND second innings
T. McIntosh lbw b Khan    0
B. McCullum not out    11
BJ Watling not out    2
Extras (b-4, w-5)    9
Total: (one wicket, 10 overs)    22
Fall of wicket: 1-4.
Bowling: Khan 4-2-7-1, Sreesanth 1-0-4-0, Ojha 3-2-1-0, Raina 1-0-1-0, Dhoni 1-0-5-0 (w-1).