India bowled out England for 246 on day one of the first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday but Kevin Pietersen felt that the home side would not be able to do better than the visiting side when it came to their time to bat.
For England, Ben Stokes pressed the accelerator button when it was needed the most to top-score with 70 off 88 deliveries as India’s veteran spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took three wickets each.
It was an innings where England were great in patches — the opening partnership yielding 55 runs while Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow had a stand of 61 runs for the fourth wicket. Stokes, the England skipper, brought up his 31st Test fifty after lunch, while making precious runs with the lower order to take England past 200.
After the end of the second session, Kevin Pietersen said that the game was in not favour of India but was rather poised.
“I know the commentators have been saying that it’s India’s session. I mean if you look at the numbers, just over 100 runs and five wickets, it would probably tell you a story that it had to be India’s session. However, in the context of the game and from what we’ve seen on this wicket, I think it’s fairly matched,” said Pietersen.
“I mean I could be talking absolute nonsense here if India go out there and score 350 but I don’t see it from what the wicket looks like. This is not a normal Day 1 wicket when you think it’s your best chance of scoring runs in the first innings. You win the toss and opt to bat and get 400, it’s absolutely not that kind of wicket. I think in the context of the game, it’s even-stevens,” Pietersen added.
After bowling England out, India were off to a blistering start in their first innings.
IND vs ENG 1st Test Day 1 – LIVE
With 246 being a decent score on a pitch which hasn’t been as tricky to bat on as it is usually in India, the hosts will be aiming to bat for at least one and a half days to put themselves into ascendancy in the match.
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