By Abhishek Manroa
KOLKATA, India (TheSportsNEXT) December 5, 2012: The third Test match between India and England saw intriguing battle between bat and ball on first day at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday as the hosts reached 172 runs at tea but not before losing four top-order batsmen.
On a day when out-of-form Sachin Tendulkar reached yet another milestone in his international cricket career, India failed to pounced on the chance of piling up a big total in the first innings of the Kolkata Test as English bowlers kept up the pressure with some imposing bowling on a pitch which has something on offer for the faster bowlers.
India collected 82 runs in the second session of day one and lost two more wickets of opening batsman Gautam Gambhir and aggressive right-hand middle-order batsman Virat Kohli as the match stays very much even-steven after two sessions.
After losing Virender Sehwag and Cheteshwar Pujara in the opening session, the onus was on Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar to deliver the goods for the home side.
While Sachin Tendulkar is still at the crease at 46 along with Yuvraj Singh unbeaten at 14, Gautam Gambhir missed out on making it big as he was dismissed for 60 from 124 balls when he tried to cut a rising delivery by Monty Panesar but not before the left-hander struck 12 boundaries.
Virat Kohli’s poor form in the series continued as he edged one off James Anderson straight to the throat of Graeme Swann after scoring six runs from 24 balls.
The wicket of Virat Kohli holds a huge significance as this was the first time in the series since James Anderson got rid of Gautam Gambhir on second ball of the Mumbai Test. This was the first time after 338.4 overs that a bowler other than spinners took a wicket in this series.
During the course of the post-lunch session, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar achieved yet another milestone of his international career as he became the first-ever batsman to score over 34,000 runs in Test cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar is now the leading run-scorer, 2,484 runs, in the India-England Test encounters as during the current innings he went past Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of 2,483 runs.
India will resume the post-tea session at 172/4 and both the teams are still very much confidence of holding their nerves to take the honors on day one of the Kolkata Test.
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