Day One
Captains unveil the Investec Trophy before the start of the match
Start of 5 match Test series,another overseas tour for M S Dhoni and co.,a new team,completely fresh outlook,can all these reverse the fortunes of Indian team away from home was the big question hovering in the minds of millions of Indians.First job done by the captain,he won the toss and India are batting.After a cheeky start,the opening duo of India in the form of Vijay and Dhawan looked relatively settled as all the early nerves had calmed down.But,you can't keep Anderson out of the game for too long as he drew first blood by dismissing Dhawan. Prior took a flying catch as Anderson celebrated his 50th test wicket at Trent Bridge.Pujara walked in as he and Vijay batted beautifully to take India to a commendable score of 106/1 at lunch.
But,if it was India's batting that made a lot of talking in the morning session,then it was England's bowling that dominated the post-lunch session.India from being one down were reduced to three down with barely few runs added on the board within minutes in the afternoon session.Bell took a brilliant catch at short mid-on to get rid of pujara off Jimmy Anderson's bowling and Broad accounted for Kohli's dismissal.Rahane,who walked in at No.5 steadied the ship in company of Vijay as hosts rolled down a number of maiden overs.Both Vijay and Rahane played with lot of composure and patience,playing each ball on it's merit and went into tea unconquered.
Just as lunch break yielded England double break-through,Tea break brought the downfall of Rahane who failed to keep down Plunkett's rising delivery.With India playing only five specialist batsman,Dhoni came at No.6 to join Vijay,who by now was in nervous nineties.After being stranded on 99 for quite a while,Vijay finally completed his 4th Test hundred and got a warm reception from nearly a full-house Nottingham crowd.Vijay's knock was solid in temperament,determination and patience and made full use of good batting conditions.Dhoni,too,looked good and was determined to prove his critics wrong.Just before the close of play on Day 1,Dhoni got to his half century off just 64 balls ,a brisk one in the context of the proceedings.England bowlers failed to get a wicket after Rahane's dismissal in the evening session on a placid pitch as India ended the day on a high.
First day first show-Vijay scores a brilliant hundred
SCORE:
INDIA 259/4
Stumps,Day 1.
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