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.
