England in trouble after Pujara’s double ton

AHMEDABAD: Cheteshwar Pujara showed immense concentration and skill to notch up his maiden Test double century as India put themselves in the driver’s seat in the first Test by posting a mammoth first innings total and then compounded England’s misery with three early jolts on Friday.
The 24-year-old Pujara scored an unbeaten 206 and batted for close to nine hours before the hosts declared the first innings at 521 for eight shortly after the tea break on the second day. They then reduced the visitors to 41 for three at stumps.

Captain Alastair Cook (22) and Kevin Pietersen (6) were the two unbeaten batsmen at close with England still needing 281 runs to avoid the follow.

Nick Compton (9), James Anderson (2) and Jonathan Trott (0) were sent back by spinners on a Sardar Patel track which has already started taking turn.

Pujara recorded his second Test century in his sixth match and showed his class with some glorious shots on both sides of the wicket. The left-handed Yuvraj Singh, playing his first Test since recovering from a rare germ cell cancer, was the other notable performer with a fluent 74 as captain MS Dhoni (5), R Ashwin (23) and Zaheer Khan (7) failed to stay around for long.

Off-spinner Graeme Swann was the pick of the English bowlers with figures of 5-144, his 14th five wicket haul in 47 Tests.

Pujara became only the sixth Indian batsman to hit a double century against England, joining Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Vinod Kambli and Rahul Dravid.

Pujara batted for a marathon 513 minutes, faced 389 balls and struck 21 fours.

Off-spinner R Ashwin, who opened the bowling, scalped two wickets and became the fastest Indian to claim 50 Test wickets in his ninth Test, eclipsing Anil Kumble’s record of achieving the feat in his tenth match.

The Rajkot-born Pujara added 130 runs off 285 balls in 183 minutes for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj, as the two batsmen denied England any wicket in the first session.

The duo had come together late last evening and remained unconquered with 98 and 24 in an overnight total of 323 for 4.

India lost Yuvraj soon after lunch and Dhoni fell cheaply, both of them falling to spin bowling.

Yuvraj slogged a full-toss from left-arm spinner Samit Patel straight down to long on fielder Swann.

The 30-year-old left hander, playing his 38th Test match, faced 151 balls, batted for just over three hours and hit six fours and two sixes. It was his 11th half century in Test cricket.

Dhoni was bowled while playing a wild sweep shot off Swann.

Ashwin and Pujara then put on 66 runs for the 7th wicket in 81 minutes before Kevin Pietersen got rid off the former.

After Zaheer Khan fell cheaply to Anderson, the only wicket to fall to a medium pacer, the hosts declared the innings with Pujara unconquered along with Pragyan Ojha.

India began the proceedings with Ashwin and Zaheer Khan in bowling. The off-spinner was shifted to the end from which the left-arm pacer bowled after a four-over spell while Ojha came on from his end.

Ashwin took his 50th Test wicket by making a ball sneak through between the bat and pads of Compton to disturb the stumps.

In the very next over, Ojha dismissed Anderson as Gautam Gambhir at short leg took a brilliant bat-pad catch.

Ashwin struck another big blow by packing off Trott for a blob, through another catch in the leg trap.

Score Board

India won toss

India 1st innings

G Gambhir b Swann 45

V Sehwag b Swann 117

C A Pujara not out 206

S R Tendulkar c Patel b Swann 13

V Kohli b Swann 19

Yuvraj Singh c Swann b Patel 74

*†M S Dhoni b Swann 5

R Ashwin c Prior b Pietersen 23

Z Khan c Trott b Anderson 7

P P Ojha not out 0

Extras (b 1, lb 10, nb 1) 12

Total (8 wickets dec; 160 overs) 521

Did not bat: U T Yadav

Fall: 1-134, 2-224, 3-250, 4-283, 5-413, 6-444, 7-510, 8-519

Bowling: Anderson 27-7-75-1; Broad 24-1-97-0 (1nb); Bresnan 19-2-73-0; Swann 51-8-144-5; Patel 31-3-96-1; Pietersen 8-1-25-1

England 1st innings

*A N Cook not out 22

N R D Compton b Ashwin 9

J M Anderson c Gambhir b Ojha 2

I J L Trott c Pujara b Ashwin 0

K P Pietersen not out 6

Extras (lb 2) 2

Total (3 wickets; 18 overs) 41

To bat: I R Bell, S R Patel, †M J Prior, S C J Broad, T T Bresnan, G P Swann

Fall: 1-26, 2-29, 3-30

Bowling: Ashwin 8-1-21-2; Khan 5-3-6-0; Ojha 4-1-3-1; Yuvraj 1-0-9-0

Test debut: N R D Compton (England)

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and A L Hill (New Zealand). TV umpire: S Asnani. Match referee: R S Mahanama (Sri Lanka)

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