India escape with a draw

Gautam Gambhir batted nearly 11 hours for 137 and V.V.S. Laxman made a stylish 124 not out as India reached 476 for four Monday to draw the second cricket test against New Zealand, consolidating a 1-0 series lead.

Gambhir's innings secured the draw for India, sharing partnerships of 133 for the second wicket with Rahul Dravid (62), 97 with Sachin Tendulkar (64) and 96 with Laxman.

He was out in the 160th over of the innings, at 356-4, having made the match safe for the Indian lineup which was forced to follow on 314 runs behind New Zealand on the first innings.

Laxman's 14th test century and his unbroken 120-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj Singh (54 not out) allowed India to build a 162-run lead before their declaration ended the match an hour before scheduled stumps.

Virender Sehwag, captaining India in place of Mahendra Singh Dhoni who missed the match with a back injury, praised Gambhir's stoic contribution.

"I think he's developing his game really well," Sehwag said.

"He's playing some good cricket and he's contributing well in all forms of the game.

"I think he did fantastically well."

Sehwag said he no doubt India had the batting quality to survive."We were very strong," he said. "We knew we had players who could bat a couple of days - Laxman, Dravid, Gautam, Sachin - they can bat for two days. The dressing room atmosphere was fantastic."

NAPIER, New Zealand, AP

India, 1st Innings 305
India, 2nd Innings
(Overnight 252-2)

Gautam Gambhir lbw b Patel 		137
Virender Sehwag lbw b Patel 	 	 22
Rahul Dravid c How b Vettori 		 62
Sachin Tendulkar c McCullum b Martin 	 64
V.V.S. Laxman not out 			124
Yuvraj Singh not out 			 54

Extras (9b,1lb,3nb) 		 	 13
TOTAL:(for four declared)  	 	476

Overs: 180. Batting time: 731 minutes.
Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-163, 3-260, 4-356.
Did not bat: Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel.
Bowling: Chris Martin 30-8-86-1 (1nb), Iain O’Brien 32-9-94-0 (1nb), James Franklin 21-5-48-0,
	 Jeetan Patel 45-10-120-2, Jesse Ryder 11-5-38-0, Daniel Vettori 38-13-76-1 (1nb), Ross Taylor 2-1-4-0, Jamie How 1-1-0-0.