England finally found themselves in an advantageous position in the test series against India for the first time as they piled up a mammoth first innings total. At the end of day’s play the one wicket that the English bowlers have managed to pick would make them feel even better.
India however have got a tough job in hand as they have already lost the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan and with the score reading 25/1, they are in all sorts of trouble. James Andersen once again got better of Dhawan, now for the third time in the series and the most concerning thing is the method of his dismissal. Alistair Cook had no troubles in taking a simple catch when Andersen’s out-swinger took the edge of Dhawan’s bat- almost an action replay of the previous three dismissals. Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara looked comfortable in the small amount of time they had to bat on and it seems that they will have to bat long to take India out of trouble. It won’t be an easy job for the pressure of trailing by more than 500 runs, 545 to be precise, along with the aggression from the English will surely put the Indian batting under severe test.
Earlier in the day England had put a total of 569/7 before Alistair Cook decided to take a call and put India onto bat. Gary Ballance couldn’t reach 150 as he was given out on 136 wrongly off Rohit Sharma’s bowling. Ian Bell got back his touch as he slammed 165 against an Indian attack that lacked the bite of the previous test match. Jose Buttler who made his debut for England in this test match missed his century by 15 runs when he played down Ravindra Jadeja on 85. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar yet again was the best of the Indian bowlers with 3 wickets. Shami and debutant Pankaj Singh might consider themselves unlucky for they had to suffer from dropped catches in the slip cordon.
As of now it’s a long day ahead for India with the bat. And to maintain the 1-0 lead in the series guys like Pujara, Kohli and Rohit Sharma need to step up and put on some important contributions. England on the other hand will look to finish off India’s batting as early as possible in their bid to restore parity in the 5 match test series. For that they may not leave any stone unturned.
Tags: Cricket India Vs England test series
