India Vs. New Zealand Day 1 highlights
India is playing a test match at home against New Zealand after a long gap and losing eight straight matches playing abroad. Now the team was infused with some young players after the retirements of Dravid and Laxman. It is after a long time, India is playing a test match without these batsmen. In this regard I have written this article explaining the India's performance on the first day of the first test match.
Venue:
HyderabadTeams:
India:
Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (W & C), Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav New Zealand:
Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor (C), Kane Williamson, James Franklin, Kruger van Wyk (W), Doug Bracewell, Jeetan Patel, Trent Boult, Chris Martin Toss:
India won the toss and elected to bat first.Highlights:
The opening day of the test match belonged to Pujara. Replacing Rahul Dravid at number 3, he showed class and temperament required at the test level and remained unbeaten with 119 runs striking 15 fours and a six.
After electing to bat first, the indian openers, Sehwag and Gambhir, especially Sehwag gave a brisk start. He made 47 off just 41 balls and at the other end Gambhir supported his partner and made 22 before he fell to Boult at the team score of 49 runs.
Cheteshwar Pujara came in at number 3 after missing the spot in the team for so long due to injury made a dream comeback, who termed it as his second debut. Sehwag continued in the same way despite the loss of his partner and he got out to Bracewell playing a lose shot and India were reduced to 77 for 2. Sachin Tendulkar comes in at number 4 and played watchfully along with Pujara and ended the first session at 97 for 2.
After the lunch break, Sachin (19) bowled to a late in swinging delivery from Boult and India were 125 for 3 at this stage. When Kohli arrived at the crease, the ball was still moving around. But both Pujara and Kohli managed to bat their way through the session. They initially looked to preserve their wickets but punished the bad balls along the way. Pujara reached his fifty at the end of second session and the second session was ended at 182 for 3.
The duo accelerated at the start of third session and continued scoring runs at a quick pace. Kohli also made his fifty in the way and shared a 125 run stand with Pujara before he fell to Martin edging wide delivery.
Then, Pujara reached his maiden test century by flicking a single to fine leg off Franklin. Raina who made his way into the team ahead of Rahane was not convincing as he fell to Jeetan Patel for a mere 3 runs and India were reduced to 260 for 5 after the loss of two quick wickets. Dhoni with his 37 ball unbeaten knock, and Pujara saw off the new ball, assured that there was no loss of wickets at the end of the day and took the score to 307.
The New Zealand bowlers made use of the swing earlier and dismissed the three senior batsmen. But later as the ball became old they were not as threatening as they were earlier. The spinner Jeetan Patel did more of a containment job. Bracewell left the field cramping at the start of the third session. James Franklin and Williamson bowled some overs in between to take the team closer to the second new ball. But they presented the Indian Batsmen with many run scoring options.
New Zealand's fielding also did not help their cause as they dropped four catches, one was difficult but the other three were easy and the New Zealand's captain Ross Taylor was the one who dropped all those three catches at slip.
The day one belonged to India and if they can score another 100 to 150 runs, we can have a huge first innings lead with the pitch expected to turn. But it is not easy because the ball will be still new and conditions may help bowlers iniatially.
