The Kolkatta duo and GG deflates W.Indies

At last MSD calls it right and elects to bat first on a pitch which  promises to stand firm and is best selected for stroke play. The opposition had to have a bad bad today since it is Kolkatta and the Kolkatta duo shared a partnership of 140 runs at just 4 runs an over.

It didn't seem right from the word go to the cricket match. The schedule of the match was such that the Eden Gardens stands were empty on the Monday morning. W.Indies had the keeper keeping upto the stumps from the fourth over itself, and there were sweeper cover and deep point already placed at the same time - the defensive fields failed to exercise much control: The team seemed resigned when Sehwag and GG took the center stage earlier overs itself...

...And all Indians had to do was to utilize the opportunity and they had done exactly that. That it took 47 overs to bowl 1 single maiden over shows the indisciplined nature of the W.Indies bowling.
Indians finished on 346 for 5, with Laxman still in. West Indies didn't have the best of days, most of their wickets coming through poor strokes from set Indian batsmen. Last 2 wickets fell in the space of 4 balls.  


Sachin came at the score of 149/2 and with it came the crowd to a great extend to watch Sachin score his 100th ton, but that was not to be. He had perished, the same fashion to Sehwag and GG, falling to poor strokes and that has brought the famous partnership duo of VVS and Dravid.

This has been an impressive year for Dravid who has scored 5 centuries and having scored about 930 odd runs so far and is about 2 runs behind Ian Bell, who till now, stands top of the list. Dravid's innings has been brisk right from the time he entered and though he went to a shell, gathered momentum again with sweetly time drives both on the off and the on side. Dravid went on to celebrate with his 21st six, this time a slog-sweep off Samuels.


Laxman brought up his eighth score of 50 or more in his 10th Eden Test with a well-placed couple deep on the on side. That shot was also indicative of his innings, of how he kept finding gaps through the defensive fields.

All Indians have to do is to score 500+ runs and declare by tea time tomorrow. Since the pitch might offer assistance from the 2nd day evening onwards, W.Indies needs to be prepared for 0-2 rout at the hands of Indians, by day 4.