Kolkata: A brilliant 190 from England’s captain Alastair Cook and some solid contribution from the middle order have put the visitors in a tremendous position against India at the end of the third day’s play at Eden Gardens here today.
England finished the day at 509/6 and are 139 runs ahead of India in the third Test of the four match series.
Earlier in the day, Cook (136*) and Jonathan Trott (21*) the two overnight batsmen started the proceeding and were a bit circumspect in the morning. R Ashwin opened the bowling for India and bowled much better than the way he bowled yesterday. He stuck to a good line and avoided any unnecessary variations.
Both batsmen were a bit defensive in their approach as they accumulated the singles and did not try any attacking shots. Trott who failed in the previous two Test matches was the first between the two to hit a boundary.
With nothing happening with the old ball, Dhoni decided to take the new ball and the decision seemed to back-fire as both Zaheer and Ishant bowled some bad balls and were punished. Trott got to his fifty and played some impressive drives in the process.
Cook present India an opportunity when he jabbed at an Ishant Sharma delivery, but the bowler failed to complete what was an easy catch.
England scored 80 runs without any loss in the 32 overs that they faced in the morning session. England started the afternoon session with Cook on 167 and Trott on 52. The two batsmen continued with their brilliant partnership and got England ahead of the Indian total.
Pragyan Ojha who was the only wicket-taker for India so far, provided the team their second wicket. Trott who was nearing his hundred got a ball that pitched and turned sharply to take his outside edge, Dhoni completed a good catch.
Cook at the other end looked as solid as ever and was on a verge of getting to a double hundred when he was run-out under bizarre circumstances. Kevin Pietersen flicked a ball straight to Virat Kohli standing at square-leg, Kohli fielded the ball and threw the ball at stumps at the non-strikers end. Cook would have comfortably made his ground but he fell short trying to avoid the ball hitting his body. The two umpires had a little discussion before adjudging the England captain out.
Cook scored 190 most impressive runs before getting out. His down-fall brought Ian Bell on the crease. At Tea, England were 381/3 with Pietersen on 29 and Bell on three.
The evening session turned out to be the most conducive one for the visitors as they scored 128 runs for the loss of three wickets in the 28 overs that they faced. Pietersen started the evening session with some lusty blows as he hit Ojha for three consecutive boundaries. Bell failed in the first Test and his struggle continued as he got caught behind to Ishant Sharma on five.
Pietersen at the other end completed a quick-fire half-century but got out soon after that trying to sweep Ashwin towards square-leg. Samit Patel has looked good so far and he once again started well, he played some attacking strokes both of the spinners and against the medium pacers. On 33 he succumbed to a sharp reaction catch from Sehwag of the bowling of Ojha.
At that moment it looked as if India might get some quick wickets but a brilliant partnership between Matt Prior (40) and Graeme Swann (21) took England past the 500 run-mark. For India, Ojha was the most successful bowler picking three wickets.
Brief Score:
India: 316
England: 509/6 (Cook 190, Trott 87, Ojha 3-140)
By Indian Sports News Network