The first Test of much awaited series between India and New Zealand started today.Indian captain M.S.Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first.Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag gave India a steady start but in the 10th over of the match India lost their first wicket.Gautam Gambhir was caught behind by van Wyk on the bowling of Boult. A little while later,India lost the wicket of Sehwag who was looking in a good touch today.He was caught in the slips by Guptill on the bowling of Bracewell.He made 47 runs off 41 balls.Then Sachin Tendukar came to the pitch but he couldn't do something special.He made just 19 runs off 62 balls.
After the loss of top three batsmen,it was the turn of Indian midde order to do show their batting talent and they didn't disappointed anyone except the Kiwis and their fans.Both Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara builded the base for a good score.They played their shots selectively.It looks like that Virat Kohli has made a habit of hitting runs against any team,at any pitch and in any conditions.He delievered one more good innings.He hit a brilliant half-century.
The main attraction of the day's play was the knock of Cheteshwar Pujara.He scored a brilliant century to set the tone for Indian batting.He played the knock just at the time when it was much needed from him and he showed that he could be the right player to replace the Rahul Dravid.He looked very calm and patient throughout the knock.He hit 15 fours and 1 six in the innings.
Both Kohli and Pujara added 125 runs for the 4th wicket partenrship before Kohli got out on his own score of 58 runs.He was caught by Guptill on the bowling of Chris Martin.After him,Rain too followed him quickly after making just 3 runs.
After this no further damage occurred to Team India as Pujara got a good support of captain M.S.Dhoni. Dhoni looked a bit aggressive in the start when hit a six and a four to start the innings but after that he played sensibly.
From the New Zealand point of view,they had a good start once they got three quick wickets but they couldn't capitalise on them.Their spinner Jeetan Patel was economical but couldn't get the much needed wickets.Since,Dhoni and Pujara both are at the pitch so then can expect a score of around 450 plus which also can get better if they didn't take some early wickets tommorow.
Brief Scores:-
India: 307/5 (87.0 overs) 1st Innings
C.Pujara: 119* (226) T.Boult: 2/63 (16.0)
V.Kohli: 58 (107) D.Bracewell: 1/53 (10.4)
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