Rohit, Rahane give India the edge on Chennai dustbowl

After a day of grueling, probing Test cricket, Team India would clearly be the happier of the two teams at the end of Day 1 in Chennai. Two Mumbai batsmen Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane ground the English bowling out with great application on a track where puffs of dust were a common sight in the first hour of play itself.

If the first Test match in Chennai offered very little for the bowlers for the first three days, it almost felt as if the two teams had taken the field for a sixth day in a row on the same surface. Team India has often found doubters in their ability to play spin, and in two experienced heads found allies who tackled the conditions as well as anyone could.

From the get-go, Rohit Sharma’s intent set the tone for the day for India. Despite a moment of misjudgment which led to Shubman Gill’s leg-before only in the second over of the game, Rohit Sharma took on the English bowling while Pujara was up to his normal antics in blunting out and frustrating the bowlers. Sharma soon reached his half-century mark off just 47 balls, his will to dominate the bowling quite apparent from his strike rate.

Pujara fell for an uncharacteristic prod, and when Captain Kohli fell for a duck in his 150th Test innings, the devils would have started to creep in. India needed stability in the middle, and it came via Rohit and Rahane. "Intent" is often over-glorified in cricket. However, on a track where defending in stealth seemed to be a futile exercise, the two Mumbaikars showed positive intent to keep the Indian scoreboard ticking at a fair rate.

Rohit Sharma had already reached 80 runs by the time lunch came around. But, batting got harder as the day progressed, and the rate of run-scoring kept dipping. Rahane and Rohit swept their way out of trouble as England spinners kept pitching the ball in the rough. Rohit soon brought up his century post-lunch despite a few nervy moments.

If the sublime Rohit-Rahane partnership worth 162 had made the surface look tenable, there came a reminder a short while after Rohit reached his 150. Within the span of 15 balls and 1 run, both the set batsmen had been dismissed. The spin demons rose to the surface again as the ball kept turning past the bats of Ashwin and Pant. Rishabh Pant’s unique approach yet again bore fruit as he remained unbeaten at the end of the day’s play.

India’s score of 300/6 might have sounded ordinary on any other day after having won the toss and elected to bat first. But, on a surface playing more tricks than Houdini in his prime, England will have an uphill task to keep their noses ahead in the series.