India restricted to 316 at Eden

Kolkata, Dec 6 (IANS) England bowlers took the three remaining wickets in quick time to thwart India’s bid for a sizeable total on the day two of the third cricket Test match at the Eden Gardens here Thursday. Resuming at 273/7, the host’s first innings folded up for 316 runs, 62 minutes into the morning session.

Not surprisingly, the visitors opened the bowling with the pace-spin attack of James Anderson and Monty Panesar, the two chief wicket takers.

The left armer, the first Sikh to find a place in the England team, had devastated India in the previous Test in Mumbai, and continued to do the good work in the morning, sending back Zaheer Khan (6) and Ishant Sharma (0) in quick succession.

Indian captain M.S. Dhoni 52 (114b 5×4 2×6), fast running out of partners, tried to up the tempo hitting consecutive sixes of Panesar. He scored his 27th Test match 50 with a brilliant shot through the covers off Steve Finn, but much to the dismay of the spectators, got dismissed the very next ball holing out to Graeme Swann at slip.

Panesar (4/90) was the most successful bowler; for the Indians, Sachin top scored with a gutsy 76, thereby surpassing a personal milestone of 34,000 international runs on day one Wednesday. Gautam Gambhir’s gritty 60 was the other major contribution.

Anderson returned figures of 3/89, including the wicket of Tendulkar.

IANS 2012-12-06 11:00:13