New Zealand are losing their fight to survive in the second Test against India with three top-order wickets falling in the morning session on day three in Wellington.

Veteran seamer Zaheer Khan did most of the damage as the home side reached 4-87 in their second innings at lunch on Sunday, still some distance from the 246 needed to make India bat again.

At the crease is captain Brendon McCullum on 14.

He will be joined by Corey Anderson after the loss of debut batsman Tom Latham for a promising 29 on the last ball of the session to follow his first-innings duck.

McCullum was fortunate to still be there after Virat Kohli spilled a straightforward chance at silly mid-on off the bowling of Mohammed Shami when the New Zealand captain was on seven.

Kohli stuck out his left hand to a shoulder-high opportunity but dropped it cold in a rare mistake from the Indian fieldsmen in this series.

India’s two early successes came in the first eight overs of the day after New Zealand resumed at 1-24.

They were near-identical dismissals, with Khan snaring feather edges from Kane Williamson (7) and opener Hamish Rutherford (35) through to wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.

Williamson departed off the fifth ball he faced when attempting a drive before Rutherford, who had advanced confidently from 18 overnight, was undone when trying a forward defensive shot.

Khan used his variation to snare figures of 3-28 while seam-bowling colleagues Shami (1-33) and Ishant Sharma (0-23) were less troubling for the batsmen on a pitch playing truly.

Shami’s removal of Latham, giving skipper Dhoni his third catch of the morning, was greeted buoyantly by his teammates following a fourth-wicket partnership of 35.

Left-hander Latham, 21, looked assured until then, timing the ball sweetly off both front and back foot.

New Zealand scored 3-63 in the 25.1-over session under sunny skies, leaving them still 159 runs behind the tourists with six wickets in hand.

The hosts won the first match of the two-Test series by 40 runs in Auckland last week.