Daijiworld Media Network
Ahmedabad, Nov 19 : Hello and welcome everyone. Not many would have expected the game to go this far but England have managed to surprise many. Alastair Cook undoubtedly holds the key for them today as they battle to save the game. Matt Prior has held one end firm and will be needed to extend his vigil for a longer period. India wore a tired look by the end of the 4th day but they still have a chance of winning the game. That will be motivation enough for them to come hard early in the morning. England bat deep though and the cliche holds true. The first session could decide which way the game goes. Stay tuned. All the action coming your way very shortly.
A tremendous fightback from England. Cook has played a gritty innings and together with Prior they have definitely lifted hopes in the England camp. The duo batted sensibly without taking any risk whatsoever and were rewarded for their patience. India were forced to try a lot of things and the pitch did not hold the kind of demons it did when England batted previously. As the partnership grew, it wore the bowlers down completely and England will now harbour hopes of saving this game or even go one better and try to win it. That will bring its own set of pressures and difficulties with it. Join us tomorrow at 9:30 AM local time to see how it pans out. Cheers and goodbye until then.
England began Day 4 of their first Test against India on the back foot. However, a determined innings of 168* by skipper Alastair Cook saw the visitors put up a solid second innings showing. Cook, who is captaining the national side for the third time, scored another hundred, and now has a ton in every outing as Test captain. Thanks to his efforts the game is now poised for an interesting fifth-day finish.
Here are some more interesting stats from a day that clearly belong to the England
Cook, while on 84, completed his 1,000 runs against India in 12 Test matches. He became ninth England batsman to aggregate 1,000 or more runs against India. Graham Gooch heads the list with 1,725 runs from 19 appearances.
Cook’s innings is the third highest by a batsman following-on against India, after Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower’s 232* at Nagpur in 2000-01 and England’s Ken Barrington’s 172 at Kanpur in 1961-62.
Cook has now taken his run tally in Test matches in 2012 to 896, which is second only to Australia’s Michael Clarke’s tally of 1,041.
The sixth wicket unbroken partnership of 141 runs between Cook and Matt Prior is England’s second best for this wicket against India in India. Ian Botham and Bob Taylor had added 171 runs at Mumbai (Wankhede) in 1979-80.
Kevin Pietersen has now been dismissed to left-arm spinners on 25 occasions out of 145 – a percentage of 17.24
Matt Prior’s average of 43.83 is the third highest for a wicketkeeper with a minimum 1,000 runs in Test cricket. Only Andy Flower (53.70) and Adam Gilchrist (47.60) are ahead of him.