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| Pragyan Ojha 5 for 40 |
Mumbai, Day
1: Indian captain MS Dhoni surprised many and disappointed more by electing
to field first after wining the toss in Sachin Tendulkar’s 200th and
the second and final Test against West Indies
in Mumbai today. The Wankhede track is known to take turn from the 3rd
or 4th day making things difficult for the team batting last.
However, it is also known to contain some juice and Dhoni perhaps wanted to
exploit early morning conditions with his new look fast bowler pair
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami. Had the catches been taken early on the
Indian captain’s decision could have been justified immediately. Finally, on
the first day itself the crowds had the best of both worlds. They witnessed
their team dominate West Indies completely and
relished the retiring legend coming in to bat remaining unbeaten at stumps.
The Indian fast
bowlers, particularly Shami, maintained tight line and length reaching the
speeds of around 145km per hour. Shami got the danger man Chris Gayle (11) out
early while quite a few catches were dropped at slips of Kieran Powell (48—highest
individual score) and DM Bravo (29). But
the spinner duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha clicked immediately compensating
for the lost chances. It was surprising to see the ball spinning and keeping
low right on the first day. West Indies had
had another unpredictable collapse with not partnership building up and not
even a single half century in the entire innings. West
Indies could not last even two full sessions and got all out for a
paltry 182 before tea break. Ojha had the best figure of 5 for 40, Ashwin 3 for
45 and the pacers with one each.
India started
on a brisk note with openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay notching up 77
runs in almost one-day style. And then in the 14th over off spinner
Shillingford struck twice getting both openers out. Cheteshwar Pujara came in
his usual position and with 2 wickets down for 77 there was pin drop silence
and suspense around the stadium. With more than twenty overs left for the day a
night watchman could not possible be sent in. It was also too risky to send in
Tendulkar as billion hopes were associated with his batting, possibly for the
last time ever as India
was set on course for a big lead like in the first Test in Kolkata.
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| Sachin Walks In To Bat Perhaps For Last Time |
But it was
indeed Sachin Tendulkar who came in with crowds loving the moment. Tendulkar too
seemed to have understood the urgency of the billion hopes and batted
cautiously slowly and steadily opening out and finding his rhythm. The
master-blaster remained unbeaten at 38 with Pujara not out on 34 and India at 157/2 trailing just by 25
runs. The Scorecard:
Since early
morning today the atmosphere in and around Wankhede Stadium was charged with
admiration and passion demonstrated spontaneously by fans, cricket organizers
and ex-players and huge number of media crews for the cricket legend who was
playing his 200th and last Test on his home ground. He was
felicitated with memento by the cricket Board; Dhoni presented him a cap with
200 embossed over it; the coin for the toss was also special with Sachin
Tendulkar’s photo on it and the Indian Posts and Telegraphs issued today a
special stamp in his honor.
His cricket fans
all over India
and the world at the moment are pinning their hopes on their beloved player to
deliver a strong and fitting farewell knock tomorrow, the 101st
international century most preferably.
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