India conquered the first Test vs. England

India 1st innings 8-521 declared (Cheteshwar Pujara 206*, Virender Sehwag 117, Graeme Swann 5-144) and 2nd innings 1-80 (Pujara 41*, Sehwag 25, Swann 1-46) beat England 1st innings 191 (Matt Prior 48, Alastair Cook 41, Pragyan Ojha 5-45) and 2nd innings 406 (Cook 176, Prior 91, Ojha 4-120) by 9 wickets.

Team India made the first impact on the visiting England by humiliating them in the first Test with a huge margin of 9 wickets on the last day of the match.

India hammered 521 runs with two wickets in hand when MS Dhoni declared the first innings and achieved the target by scoring 80 runs for the loss of just one wicket in the second innings. The first innings of England was rolled back for just 191 runs, however, they exhibited a positive show in the second innings by smashing 406 runs.

Cheteshwar Pujara - 'Player of the match' for his majestic unbeaten knocks
Cheteshwar Pujara – ‘Player of the match’ for his majestic unbeaten knocks

Cheteshwar Pujara (India) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his heroic unbeaten knock of 206 runs in the first innings followed by 41 not out in the second.

The first Test of the four match series finished on Monday, November 19, 2012, at Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad.

Earlier, England went into bat on the final day at 5-340 off 128 overs with high hopes of saving it.  The unbeaten pair of Alastair Cook and Matt Prior was at the crease with 168 and 84 respectively. Dhoni handed over the ball to Zaheer khan who delivered the first over as a maiden and Pragyan Ojha gave away one run in the next over. The batting duo remained watchful and decided to play defensive cricket which brought a downfall for them. They added just 16 runs in the first nine overs when Prior was caught and bowled by Ojha for 91 off 225 balls with 11 fours.

Worries for the visitors multiplied when their skipper, Alastair Cook, was clean bowled by Ojha after the addition of eight runs in his overnight score. Tim Bresnan scored 20 runs and Graeme Swann managed 17 when their innings came to an end for 406 off 154.3 overs.

Pragyan Ojha was the destructor in chief again by grabbing four wickets and earned a tally of nine in the match. Umesh Yadav claimed three, Zaheer Khan got two and Ravichandran Ashwin ended up with one wicket.

India required 77 mere runs to win the match as Virender Sehwag opened the innings with the make shift opener, Cheteshwar Pujara, who gave a rising start by hitting a couple of fours in the second over. The batsmen looked in a hurry and most of the score was being added with the boundaries. They dispatched 1 six and 4 fours in the next three overs and the quick fired fifty of the innings was attained in the 8th over.

Sehwag became the first victim when he was caught by Kevin Pietersen at long-on, off Greame Swann for 25 runs. Virat Kohli joined in next with Pujara and both continued the pace of scoring with regular boundaries. Kohli hit the winning four on the third ball of the 16th over as the score reached 80 for the loss of just one wicket. Pujara secured his end for 41 off 51 balls with 8 fours and Kohli scored 14 from 21 with 3 fours.

India won the Test with a huge margin of nine wickets with a dedicated team work and leads the four Test series 1-0.


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