Bengal seamer Mukesh Kumar bowled to a probing channel in all his spells as India ‘A’ stifled New Zealand ‘A’ to 156-5 before bad light stopped play on the opening day of the first unofficial Test here.

Playing for a representative national side (India U-19, India U-23, India ‘A’ or Senior India) for the first time, the right-arm fast-medium bowler got the ball to move both ways and finished with figures of 13-4-34-3, with a wicket in each of his three spells.