Ind/Eng first test: Pujara’s double ton put India in driver seat
Ahmedabad: Cheteshwar Pujara maiden double century has put India 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 here 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 and then reduced the visitors to a precarious 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) are the three batsmen back in the pavilion on a Sardar Patel track which has already started taking turn.
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 while captain Mahendra Simgh Dhoni (5) and R Ashwin (23) and Zaheer Khan (7) could not hang around for long.
Off-spinner R Ashwin, who opened the bowling, scalped two wickets and in the process 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 took two singles in the 9 balls he faced this morning to reach his first landmark after 16 minutes into the day and then continued to bat with a lot of resolute.
He added 130 runs in 183 minutes for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj Singh, who scored 74 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 the wickets of Yuvraj Singh soon after lunch and also the wicket of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, both of them falling to spin bowling.
Yuvraj, not out 72 at the end of session one, could add only two runs in under ten minutes before slogging a full-toss from left-arm spinner Samit Patel straight down to long on fielder Graeme Swann, England’s most successful bowler in the innings with figures of 5 for 144.
England had lost these three wickets in 13 balls before Cook and Pietersen with Dhoni beefing up the close-in catching positions with four fielders.
In the morning, the home team added 83 runs in 31 overs to their overnight score of 323 for 4 without losing any wicket.
Pujara was unconquered on 133 after having batted for nearly six sessions from just after lunch on Thursday while Yuvraj was unbeaten on 72 after a stay of 174 minutes.
The Saurashtra youngster needing just two runs to reach his second 100 in only his 6th Test after starting the day at his individual score of 98, got them in singles to long leg in 9 balls that he faced in the morning to complete the landmark in little over four hours and off 190 balls. It was laced with 13 fours.
