By Abhishek Manroa
MUMBAI, India (TheSportsNEXT) November 19, 2012: India defeated England in the first Test by nine wickets at Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera on Monday.
England’s resilience ended in the opening session when they were eventually all out for 406 runs as skipper Alastair Cook made 176 runs while wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior hit 91 runs for the visitors.
Indian batsmen then raced to victory for the loss of wicket as they chased down the target of 77 runs from 15.3 overs.
Cheteshwar Pujara was declared Man of the Match for a brilliant double century.
The two teams will now move to Mumbai which will host the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium from November 23. The third and fourth Test matches of the series will be played at Kolkata and Nagpur from December 5 and December 13, respectively.
At stumps on day four, England had reached 340 for five and it all looked like an intriguing day of Test cricket on final day of the Ahmedabad Test but England batsmen failed to keep prolonging misery on the Indian bowlers as they could add only 66 runs to their overnight tally before losing the last half of the side.
The collapse left India with a paltry target of 77 runs which was never enough to challenge the Indian top-order batsman who scored 80 for one from 15.3 overs as the home side wrapped up a comfortable victory with half a day in hand.
Chasing 77 runs for victory, Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Cheteshwar Pujara scored 57 runs in only 9.5 overs before Viru was dismissed for 25 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara remained the man to get out for England bowlers as he came unbeaten at 41 while Virat Kohli (14 not out) hit the winning runs.
This is the first victory for India at Ahmedabad in the last seven years and they had to work hard for their dominance especially in the second innings when Alastair Cook and Matt Prior refrained from bowing down to Indian spinners.
The last time India had won at Motera was in December 2005 when they had defeated Sri Lanka here. Collectively, it was India’s fourth victory in Ahmedabad in 12 Test matches and their fifth in the last six Test matches played on home soil.
Apart from Cheteshwar Pujara, left-arm off-spinner Pragyan Ojha also played a major part in the victory for India as he captured the two dangerous men Cook and Prior in the space of 12 balls to dent England chances on the final day.
Pragyan Ojha captured nine wickets in the match for 165 runs as he grabbed five wickets for 45 runs in the first innings before adding more sheen to his performance by taking four wickets for 120 runs in the second innings.
Losing captain Alastair Cook told the presentation party, “We can look at a number of reasons why we didn't win, but our first innings wasn't good enough. It was a great fightback, there was a glimmer of hope, but it always had to be something special. We'll work hard going into Mumbai. The pitch got slower as the game went on. We need runs in the first innings, they are crucial, and we need to keep working as hard as we can."
Winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni told the presenter, "There was something in the wicket to start with but as the game progressed there was low bounce but not much turn. It was hard work for the spinners and it was a fantastic effort from them. Even if you misjudged the flight you had time to adjust and not much carried to the slips. It was important not to give many runs."
Man of the Match Cheteshwar Pujara said, "The ball was coming nicely onto the bat. There was turn, but it was slow. As a team we knew we had to put up 500-plus and I had to hang around to play my role. In the second innings the ball was hard and I had a lot of confidence. I was out for almost a year and since I'm back I'm enjoying it."
