England dominate day one of Kolkata Test

By Abhishek Manroa

KOLKATA, India (TheSportsNEXT) December 5, 2012: A disciplined bowling display by England bowlers helped the visiting side to dominate the first day of the third Test match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.

James Anderson took three wickets while Monty Panesar captured two wickets as India limped to 273 for seven stumps on day one despite of brilliant half centuries by Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir.

The day belonged to Sachin Tendulkar who achieved yet another milestone in his illustrious cricket career as he became the first ever batsman to score over 34,000 runs in international cricket.

However, James Anderson had the last laugh as he captured the little master’s scalp for eighth time, the most by any bowler, along with Sri Lankan magician spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. Australian fast bowlers Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie dismissed Sachin on six times each.

The match looked evenly poised at tea break with India at 172 for four, but Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh took the offensive right after the break and tried to take the game away from the England bowlers during 79 runs partnership for the fifth wicket.

However, a loose shot by Yuvraj Singh gave England the chance to come back into the proceedings and when James Anderson removed Sachin Tendulkar, India looked in all sorts of problems.

India could have been dented even harder had England skipper Alastair Cook picked up the ball cleanly to run Ravichandran Ashwin but Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the tail-ender managed to survive the scare and added 38 valuable runs for the seventh wicket before James Anderson used the new ball to great effect to dismantle furniture behind Ashwin.

Earlier in the day, Gautam Gambhir scored 60 runs to laid the foundation of a strong Indian innings but other than Sachin Tendulkar none of the other batsmen could live up to the expectations and stand to the challenge as England have an edge going in to second day of the crucial Test match.

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Kolkata Test: India lose 4 batters for 172 at tea on day 1

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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Kolkata Test: India reach 90 at lunch as Sehwag, Pujara perish

By Abhishek Manroa

MUMBAI, India (TheSportsNEXT) December 5, 2012: India reached 90 for the loss of two wickets with opening batsman Virender Sehwag gifting his wicket away to England on first day of the third Test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.

The four-match Test series is leveled at 1-1 after India won the Ahmedabad Test by nine wickets before England bounced back in Mumbai Test with a 10-wicket triumph.

The Eden Gardens pitch has been the darling of local as well as international media organizations in the past few days but the curator made a pitch which is mostly going to favor the batsmen during first three days before spinners start getting the bite from the surface. The cricket experts were of the view that fast bowlers will get some purchase out of the wicket during first couple of hours of the Test match but it would be one-way ride for the batsmen afterwards until it starts to break in the final two days.

Indian team replaced Harbhajan Singh with fast bowler Ishant Sharma was the pitch is likely to assist pacers during initial phase of the proceedings while on the other hand England included middle-order batsman Ian Bell and tall fast bowler Steven Finn in place of Jonny Bairstow and vice captain Stuart Broad.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni once again won the toss and decided to bat first on a pitch which may have demons in it for the fourth innings.

MSD’s opening batsmen proved the choice right with some quality shot-making during initial overs and took the total to 47 without loss from 10 overs.

It all went in India’s way until first ball of the 11^thover when Virender Sehwag flicked one away to the midwicket area. Samit Patel made a good run and managed to keep the ball within the playing area by sliding on the boundary line with Steven Finn throwing the ball back to the wicketkeeper. The two batsmen easily completed two runs but Sehwag wanted the third run and both batsmen had no connection at all with Gautam Gambhir watching at the fielders while Sehwag busy in running for the third. When Gambhir asked Sehwag to go back to his crease, it was too little too late as Matt Prior made no mistake to dislodge the stumps in due time.

Virender Sehwag scored 23 runs from 26 balls and it is worth mentioning here that this is the fourth time that Sehwag has been runout with Gambhir on the other end. The last three occasions came in 2005, 2008, and 2009.

The Eden Gardens has been an ominous ground for the opening batsmen in the last few Test matches as no opening pair has been able to score a hundred runs partnership here in the last 19 innings. The last time, the opening batsmen did score a century stand at the Eden Gardens was in November 2002 when West Indian openers Wavell Hinds and Chris Gayle amassed 172 runs for the opening wicket.

With runs coming quickly for Indians, England skipper Alastair Cook decided to turn to his spinning options and soon left-arm offspinner Monty Panesar got rid of the Indian runs machine in the series Cheteshwar Pujara for just 16 runs from 48 balls as Indians were rocked at 88 for two.

As Pujara perished, the illustrious Sachin Tendulkar stepped into the Eden Gardens and the crowd went berserk hailing to the living legend.

Soon Gautam Gambhir achieved his 21^st Test half century and his second in the current series as the left-hand opening batsman has started to rediscover the lost form.

Despite of some scary moments, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar managed to take India at lunch without losing much of the initial advantage but Alastair Cook and company would be happy with how the initial session of the Kolkata Test went.

Gautam Gambhir was not out at 50 while Sachin Tendulkar was unbeaten at one at lunch on day one.

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