England well in command after first day of Eden Gardens Test

Apart from Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar, no Indian batsman could give England any tough time on the opening day of third Test, going on at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. India’s misery started with Virender Sehwag’s departure, who ran himself out very early in the innings.

His early loss put the home side under tremendous pressure. Cheteshwar Pujara, who is India’s highest run-getter so far in the series, failed to continue his good run, and lost his wicket after scoring just 16 runs. Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar gave the side some hope by scoring some very good runs. The Master Blaster was under severe pressure after doing nothing good in the first two games.

He took a cautious start, and gradually started playing his natural game. Gambhir, on the other hand, was as stylish as ever. The classy left-hander completed his half-century in good style. The crowd was expecting the Delhi batsman to go for a big total, but he failed awfully. After piling up 60 runs, he lost his concentration, and was caught at slip by Jonathan Trott.

Tendulkar smashed his first fifty of the series. The legendary batsman was lucky to survive early in his innings, but he slowly started getting into touch. The Little Master was dismissed by James Anderson, when he was at 76.

After the departure of Tendulkar and Gambhir, the responsibility was entirely on Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who remained unbeaten till end of the day. The wicket-keeper batsman is currently unbeaten at 22, while Zaheer Khan is yet to get off the mark.

At end of the first day, India were 273 at the loss of seven wickets. Anderson was star of the show for England, as he claimed three wickets. Monty Panesar continued his great work, and scalped a couple of wickets. Graeme Swann also dismissed an India.

The tourists are in total command at the moment. They will look to restrict the home side to a score under 300. And if they manage to do so, India would be under tremendous pressure.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=35774

Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Dec 6 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.