Monday 28 July 2014
England v India, 3rd Investec Test, Ageas Bowl, 2nd day
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| Debutant Jos Buttler launching an assault on the Indian Bowlers. |
England declared on 569/7 & then Anderson got Dhawan out early as India ended the day on 25/1 in 14 overs.
The Three Lions were led in by their centurions, Ballance and Bell, with Cook following behind after a hard day's work.
Led by Captain Cook's 95, England scored 569 runs for 7 wickets in the 1st innings of the 3rd Test. B Kumar was the most successful bowler for India, scalping 3 wickets. Buttler scored a quick-fire 85 in the end. At one stage of the innings he 2 back-to-back sixes off Pankaj Singh and then scored a boundary to gather 21 runs from the 163rd over.
Earlier, Ian Bell & Gary Ballance were near-perfect for England, they seldom missed, rarely edged & looked completely dominating as they raised the run-rate in the first session. It looked like a perfect day for batting. Ian Bell never looked like a man who has been out of form for a long time and hasn't scored a test.
MS Dhoni changed the bowling 15 times in as many overs in order to extract something from the Indian Attack. B Kumar, who has constantly been India's go-to man, couldn't do much himself. Shami continued his undisciplined bowling & Pankaj Singh lost his steam after bowling impressively at the start of both days.
England declaration meant that Indian openers had 14 overs to survive but it was a huge task cut out the way Broad & Anderson squared them up time and again. Both of them were swinging the ball at high speed consistently.
While M Vijay fended off most of them well enough, it was Dhawan who edged one to Alastair Cook at 1st slip after Anderson attack him from round the stumps. Poor Dhawan couldn't be blamed entirely for the dismissal such was the quality of the England Attack that it looked impossible stay for those 14 overs.
In the end Vijay & Pujara guided India to 25/1 on stumps without any further loss.
In the end Vijay & Pujara guided India to 25/1 on stumps without any further loss.
