McCullum to sleep over declaration

"Those are the decisions we have to mull over overnight and they were decisions we didn't have a couple of days ago. I'm not going to assure you yet, we are going to sleep over it."

While McCullum was not sure about his decision, BJ Watling, who showed exemplary patience during his knock of 124 was more assertive and said McCullum would go for the triple ton. "It's the longest innings by a New Zealander but he's still pretty fresh and he'll come out tomorrow and keep going," Watling told reporters when asked if McCullum was suffering from any effects of his 12 hour six minute vigil so far.

Watling also indicated that the hosts would look to bat for a while before attempting to bowl the Indians out in the second essay. "We'd definitely love to win the Test. I still think there's a job to be done in the first hour tomorrow morning and see where we're at," he said.

Watling felt the pitch was still good to bat and the bowlers needed to bend their backs to get some purchase. "It's still a good batting track but I think if conditions are right I think our bowlers could swing it and put them under pressure and try and win a Test match".