For England, Matt Prior was declared fit and the English Captain had decided to play Ben Stokes for Chris Jordan.
At 15:28 IST, when Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay came out in the open, James Anderson was arrayed with the cherry. The first run came off the third ball which was a tentative shot from Vijay who at some point wanted to leave it, but eventually scored a boundary. Vijay then backed it up with twin boundaries as India scored 12 of the first over. Thanks to no third man!
Stuart Broad was the bowler from the other end who started with a full length giving away just one run off his first six deliveries.
Vijay stole some quick runs off Anderson with two fours, the first having played away from the body. The absence of extra bounce aided him.
The first blow for India came in the 7th over as Anderson bowled round the wicket to Dhawan who tried playing away from his body but edged and gave a low catch to wicketkeeper Matt Prior. With that, James Anderson became the first bowler to scalp 50 wickets at Trent Bridge.
Cheteshwar Pujara was the next man in, who played an elegant copybook forward defense, exhibiting the class he is made up of.
The 15th over marked the arrival of Liam Punket who bowled from the back of the length and produced a maiden.
India went in to drinks with 53 on the board, having lost Dhawan. Pujara and Vijay were batting at 10 and 30 respectively. The wicket appeared to be that of the sub-continental standards, with slightly more bounce and carry.
The play resumed with the cherry in Stokes’ hand who was greeted with a wristy on-drive from Vijay in the fourth ball of his over. Pujara’s plan, that looked evident, was to wait and slam the loose deliveries as he whacked Stokes in his next over.
Moeen Ali, England’s odd spinner bowled the 23rd over giving away a four to Pujara, which was a high full toss and was smacked to deep midwicket fence. Top quality bad ball!
Vijay brought up his fastest test fifty from Stokes’ over hitting twin boundaries. The first being a backfoot punch and the second, a cover drive. By the 25th over, India were 94/1.
Pujara displayed his prowess and scored ten from Plunkett’s next steering India to 104 and himself to 38. India were able to score only two of the next four overs before slipping into lunch at Day 1.
Broad resumed the play and bowled a maiden. Anderson was then brought back and his second delivery marked the end of Pujara who mistimed a slower delivery to silly mid-on where Bell caught him splendidly. That was the first instance of reverse swing in the match ! Quite unexpected at that point.
The third wicket came in quick succession as the Man of Honor, Virat Kohli was caught by Bell in the slips who took a low catch. With three of their frontline batsmen back in the pavellion, India, suddenly looked shaky with their five bowler strategy.
The scoreboard read 107/3 from 33 overs when Rahane joined Vijay. A couple of sumptuous straight drives and late cuts from Rahane and Vijay gave much needed composure to settled the nerves.
At tea, the Indians had scored 177 from 57 overs, with Vijay eight short off his first hundred at foreign soil and Rahane on 32 off 77.
After having added 71 crucial runs between him and Vijay, Rahane was given the walking papers post tea as he tried to pull, but the ball having touched the toe of the bat, landed in Captain Cook’s safe hands.
The Indian Skipper walked with determined eyes while an unfazed Murali Vijay who’s on 93 faced Stuart Broad. Two maidens, and the third could yield just a single.
England were well on the driving seat, but Team India had stepped down with a crystal clear game plan, to toil hard, and get as many runs as possible before the new ball is taken.
Vijay scored a boundary of Broad’s over and moved to 99. He then played 13 balls before scoring that the run to get fantastic hundred which came off 214 balls. His first outside India, fourth overall. He became the second Indian to score a test ton at his first appearance at England, after Sourav Ganguly. What followed was a silent raise of the bat as Vijay thanked the applause, well aware of the fact that he had bigger task ahead off him, to take India further towards 400 runs mark.
It was Dhoni’s turn to rock the show now, who did so with a cut to the square of the wicket. Somewhat being his vintage self! With that India reached 194 from 68 overs at the loss of four wickets. Two aggressive fours from the Indian Captain took the score past 200. With 20 overs left to bowl, Indians had regained their scoring rate and both the batsmen looked rock solid.
The centurion then smashed the first six of the match from a Moeen Ali over, as he danced down the track and hit it over long off.
The second new ball was available soon after the 80th over, but the English Captain made a surprising move and handed the ball to Joe Root who gifted Dhoni a full toss and was driven to mid-off. Anderson straightaway got to bowl with the new ball and produced a maiden.
Dhoni then played the second ball of the ultimate over with soft hands to bring his fifty. With that he became the second wicket keeper batsman with the highest number of fifties, secondary to SA’s Mark Boucher who has 35 of them. The final ball of the day was seen off by Vijay who defended it well.
India ended the day’s play with 259 on the board, not having lost a further wicket. MS Dhoni having scored a perfect fifty from 64 deliveries and Vijay a 122 off 294 balls.
Anderson was the pick of the bowlers who scalped two wickets and got some reverse swing. He was well supported by Broad who looked to keep things tight from the other end. Whatever short stuff was bowled by Plunkett wasn’t much of a concern for the Indian batters and they did well enough to mount up a sizeable total on the first day.
For India, there was just one man who saw the day for them, and that was Murali Vijay. He shared a crucial 81 run stand with MS Dhoni and anchored the proceedings for the visitors. MS Dhoni will head back, a happy man, quite content with the position his team was in.
On Day 2, MSD would look to get as close to the 400 mark. And Cook will be laying out the plans to expose India’s tail. The first session on the following day will give an idea of whether the game could end up in a draw or have a result.
