India take 1-0 series lead

The dream did not take long to die for England on the final day of the opening Test in Ahmedabad. Bowled out for 406, after resuming their second innings on 340 for 5, England then saw India sprint to their 77-run win target in just 15.3 overs to go 1-0 up in the four-match series.

It was always going to be difficult for Alastair Cook and Matt Prior to reprise their heroics of the previous day, when they defied India's bowlers for three and a half hours to give England hope of holding on for a draw after following on. And so it proved, with neither man surviving the first hour.

Prior was the first to go, chipping a tame return catch to Pragyan Ojha, the slow left-arm spinner, when the ball 'stuck' in the pitch as he played back defensively. He had made a fine 91, adding only seven to his overnight score, and he and Cook added 157 for the sixth wicket.

From 356 for 6, however, the end came quickly amid a series of disappointing strokes, but the fatal blow came when Cook, on 176, was finally prised from the crease by Ojha, who toiled long and hard for his eventual 4 for 120. Playing back to a slow, looping delivery, when he should have been forward, Cook was bowled when the ball turned back into him and also kept very low.

No criticism, however, must be aimed at the gallant Cook, who faced 374 balls and batted for nine and a quarter hours in one of the finest, and gutsiest, innings by an England captain. Even in defeat, his effort - and that of Prior - will have given England hope that they can still play their way back into this series.

Stuart Broad was next to go, caught and bowled by Umesh Yadav as he got a leading edge trying to turn to leg a full-pitched delivery from the impressive Indian fast bowler, and the only remaining English resistance came in a ninth wicket stand of 28 between Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann.

Swann swung Ojha for six and also collected runs with a couple of audacious reverse paddles. When he tried to reverse hit Rav Ashwin, though, the off spinner bowled him middle stump for 17.

Bresnan then drove Zaheer Khan low to cover, to go for 20, and India lost only Virender Sehwag - well-held on the long on boundary by Kevin Pietersen off Swann for a 21-ball 25 - as Cheteshwar Pujara's classy 41 not out off just 51 balls rushed them to victory.


 

Date: 19/11/2012 07:41:04 by MBaldwin
In: Today | England |