India v England: First day verdict and why your money should be on Sehwag

Test previews / Ed Hawkins / 11 December 2008 / 1 Comments

Ed gives us the "Hawkeye View" on what happened during the first day's play and England's misseed opportunities. Plus, why Virender Sehwag can cash in tomorrow.

After a couple of hours of play on the first day of the first Test in Chennai, India supporters could have been forgiven for wishing England's players had not bothered to make such an effort to ensure the tour went ahead: they were getting a hammering.

By the end of it, however, the millions of passionate and partisan fans would have been clamouring to give Kevin Pietersen a warm smile, slap on the back and a "thanks for coming". Their team were well on top.

The game ebbed and flowed beautifully and there are fewer better ways of portraying that by looking at how the odds changed. The draw shortened rapidly from its position at even money to [1.45] after lunch with India drifting to [4.5]. By the close, the stalemate was [1.99] and India were [2.42]. In other words, it was as you were.

England will see this as an opportunity missed. Having won the toss and made serene progress to 118-0, they will be kicking themselves, and each other, that they closed on 229-5.

A total of 400, and going a long way to ensuring they couldn't be beaten, was within their grasp but now they are looking nervously over their shoulder. They must get parity with India on first innings, otherwise they are likely to find themselves 1-0 down.

If they can do that, another opportunity as good as the one they have just passed up might present itself. Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra, the two India spinners, were getting turn and bounce in the final session which suggests Monty Panesar could be a real handful on a deteriorating wicket if England can set India a big enough target.

Unfortunately, India average a whopping 390 in the second match innings in their last 10 Tests at home so England will need something quite remarkable from their remaining recognised batsmen, Andrew Flintoff, Matt Prior and Graeme Swann.

What any of those three could do, however, Virender Sehwag could do better. He is [4.30] to top score in India's first innings and his credentials are frightening.

In the second innings of the match at Chennai his scores read 61 v West Indies (2002), 155 v Australia (2004) and 319 v South Africa (2008). That is an average per innings of 178.3. Indeed, at home Sehwag is most dangerous in the second match innings of a Test, averaging 88 runs each time he goes to the crease. That is almost twice as many as any of India's top six.

Comments (1)

1. Dhiren | 11 December 2008

   Sehwag can be frightening in any inning, against any team, on every pitch. Chennai is Sehwag's happy hunting ground any way.