Wellington, Apr. 3 : India finished the first day of the third Test match here at a respectable 375 for nine, after slumping to 190 for five at tea with the entire top order back in the pavilion.

India was asked to bat first after Daniel Vettori won the toss, and started in typical fashion, with both openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir looking in a punishing mood.

Both Sehwag and Gambhir clobbered the Kiwi bowlers all around the Basin Reserve park here, which saw India accumulating 68 runs in the first hour of play.

But once the partnership was broken, none of the middle order batsman stayed longer in the middle, barring the maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who once again proved that there are few better than him, as he hit a classic 62, including 11 fours.

With both Laxman and Yuvraj failing to reach even the double figure mark, it was once again captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who did the rescue act along with Harbhajan Singh.

Dhoni looked calm and composed during his knock of 52, while Singh, in his spunky style, didn't allow the New Zealand bowlers to do further damage.

He hammered 60 runs in just 78 balls, including seven boundaries and a huge six.

Following Dhoni's dismissal to Tim Southee, Zaheer Khan took over the charge and gave splendid support to Harbhajan Singh, who was timing the ball with amazing perfection by the time.

Khan made 33, before Mc Cullum grabbed an almost impossible catch of the bowling of O'Brien.

The Indian lower order and the tail wagged superbly hitting 185 runs in the 35 overs of the last session of the day.

The last pair of Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma was still on the crease with personal scores of 14 and 15 respectively.

For New Zealand, CS Martin was pick of the bowlers taking three wickets for 95 runs in 24 overs. Southee and O'Brien captured two wickets each, while Vettori proved costly as he gave away 47 runs in nine overs without any success. (ANI)