Gambhir and Sehwag score centuries as India pile up 417/2
Opener Gautam Gambhir top-scored with 167 as India piled up a record
417-2 on the first day of the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka here
on Tuesday. Gambhir shared 233 runs for the opening wicket with Virender
Sehwag (131) and another 137 for the second with Rahul Dravid to help
the home side score their highest Test total in a day’s play.
India’s previous best score in a day’s play was 386-1 against South
Africa in Chennai in March 2008.
Dravid was unbeaten on 85 while Sachin Tendulkar was batting on 20
when stumps were drawn for the day.
Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan (2-100) dismissed both Gambhir and
Sehwag on an otherwise disappointing day for the Sri Lankans, seeking
their first Test win on Indian soil.
India’s opening pair set the home side up for a big first-innings
total on a track that offered little assistance to the bowlers, after
captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat.
Sehwag reached his 16th Test century with a fine-leg boundary off
Muralitharan and then hit the off-spinner for three fours in a row.
But Muralitharan got his revenge soon after by having Sehwag caught
by Tillakaratne Dilshan at short cover. Sehwag’s 122-ball knock was
studded with 18 fours and two sixes.
Gambhir, 28, also completed his eighth Test century in style, dancing
down the track to Rangana Herath for a four to the long-off fence.
His 215-ball innings containing 15 fours came to an end when he was
caught and bowled by Muralitharan in the final session of the day.
The Indian openers did well to negotiate challenging early-morning
conditions and avoid a repeat of events at the drawn first Test in
Ahmedabad, which saw the hosts reduced to 32-4 early in the first
session. Sehwag, dropped in the slips while yet to get off the mark,
overcame a subdued start to hit his trademark shots against both the
quicks and the spinners on the way to his 20th Test 50.
He twice drove fast bowler Angelo Mathews to mid-off for fours before
smashing a full toss from unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis to the deep
mid-wicket fence for the first six of the match.
Gambhir was equally aggressive in his shot-making, forcing Herath off
the attack after he hit the left-arm spinner for three fours in his
opening over.
Mendis, who had picked up 26 wickets in Sri Lanka’s 2-1 Test victory
over India at home last year, looked particularly out-of-sorts,
conceding 87 runs off his 19 overs.
First-Test centurions Dravid and Tendulkar seemed to carry their form
into the match and looked solid during their unbeaten stints at the
wicket.
Dravid, who made 177 at Ahmedabad, had so far hit eight fours in his
patient 153-ball effort.
Th third and final Test begins in Mumbai on December 2.
KANPUR, India, Tuesday, AFP
SCORECARDINDIA 1st innings
G. Gambhir c and b Muralitharan 167 V. Sehwag c Dilshan b Muralitharan 131 R. Dravid not out 85 S. Tendulkar not out 20 Extras: (lb7, b4, nb3) 14 TOTAL (for 2 wkts, 90 overs) 417
To bat: Yuvraj Singh, Venkatsai Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni,
Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.
Fall of wickets: 1-233 (Sehwag), 2-370 (Gambhir).
Bowling: Welegedara 18-3-73-0 (nb3), Mathews 14-2-38-0, Herath 18-0-91-0, Mendis 19-0-87-0,
Muralitharan 18-0-100-2, Dilshan 3-0-17-0.
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