It would be safe say that Day One of the one-off Test between India-Bangladesh belonged to India. Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay scored centuries. Kohli looked hungry for runs after a rather ordinary T20I series against England. He was timing the ball perfectly, barring a leading edge that came off in 82nd over. Almost every ball came right through the middle of the willow.
Virat Kohli gets to his 16th ton, Ajinkya Rahane proves his mettle
After the new ball was taken, Taskin Ahmed came back into the attack. But, it did not cause much of a problem for Kohli. Instead, he liked the ball coming on to the bat, hitting it gracefully through covers for a boundary. His straight drives and on-drives were a joy to watch. Meanwhile, Rahane was under pressure to perform, he took his time, playing the ball defensively, getting the feel of the pitch. Rahane was picked ahead of triple-centurion Karun Nair and he answered to his captain’s cool. As soon as he got himself in, he started scoring boundaries at a brisk rate. India ended the day’s proceedings on a high.
Virat Kohli’s counter-attack, Vijay’s 9th Test ton
Virat Kohli launched a brutal onslaught on Bangladeshi bowlers, right from the very first ball he faced. He took the pressure of Vijay. The opener took a back seat when Kohli was attacking the bowlers. Vijay was made to wait to get to his hundred as Bangladesh skipper changed the field for the opener. He went into tea, with scorecard reading 98 as he struggled to find a boundary in last over before the break.
A flick through mid-wicket for four and @imVkohli brings up his 16th Test ton @Paytm Test Cricket #INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/F4NIUzeI26
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 9, 2017
.@mvj888 celebrates as he brings up his 9th Test ton #INDvBAN @Paytm Test Cricket pic.twitter.com/vRgB9YOOfT
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 9, 2017
Vijay-Pujara partnership
Pujara and Vijay steadied the ship after Rahul’s wicket. They shared a 178-run partnership before Pujara got out to a cracker of a delivery from Mehedi Hasan. The ball did not turn at all much to Pujara’s expectation. Instead, it took an edge which went into Mushfiqur Rahim’s hand. Rahim fumbled the first time but dived to his right on his second attempt and took the catch. A fantastic partnership came to an end. At one point of time, it seemed like both the batsmen will get to their hundreds.
FIFTY! @mvj888 brings up his 15th Test 50 #INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/RP9ZpMuwUJ
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 9, 2017
Calm and composed – @cheteshwar1 personified on that half century #INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/qqDT0xkigf
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 9, 2017
When the need of the hour was to block
Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara had a hard time facing the new ball. Taskin Ahmed bowled a good line and length. He was pretty unlucky to get a number of inside edges off the bat after Rahul’s wicket but did not get the wicket of either batsman. Pujara looked uncomfortable in the beginning but played himself in. Vijay played a chanceless inning, he even started to attack the Bangladeshi bowling attack in the first session itself.
At Lunch on Day 1 of the one-off Test, #TeamIndia 86/1 (Vijay 45*, Pujara 39*). Follow the game here – https://t.co/Ne2IQxxVKm #INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/U0Kwuj3BCt
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 9, 2017
Wake-up call for Indian batsmen
Bangladesh gave India a blow to the head when they picked up the wicket of KL Rahul, he got out after scoring a couple in the first over. Rahul dragged the ball from outside off length onto his stumps, it never looked like that there was a need for him to play that drive so far of the offstump. Taskin Ahmed did well to pitch the ball up and wait for the batsman to make a mistake and that’s actually what Rahul did, Once again Rahul repeated his tendency to either score big or get out cheaply.
Brief Scores: India 356/3 (Virat Kohli 111, Murali Vijay 108; Taijul Islam 1 for 50, Taskin Ahmed 1 for 58) vs Bangladesh
