Chennai: Unbeaten half century by opener Dom
Sibley and skipper Joe Root’s quality batting (45 not out)
helped England to 140 for two at tea on the first cricket
test against India at the M A Chidambaram Stadium here
today.
At the break Sibley was batting on 53 (186 balls, 7×4)
and Root, playing his 100th test, on 45 (100 balls, 5×4).
The duo have so far added 77 runs for the unbroken third
wicket, 31.2 overs laying the foundation for a good total
under perfect batting conditions.
It was a hard toil for the Indian bowlers, despite maintaining
a tight length, could not break the deadlock as both Simbley
and Root showed better application.
They played with a straight bat, and used their feet against
the spinnners, while using the sweep to good effect.
The duo milked the Indian bowling and picked runs in ones
and twos, with the occasional boundaries.
Sibley reached his half century in 159 balls, hitting seven
fours.
Off spinner R Ashwin kept the batsmen in tight leash by
varying his length, despite being hit for two consecutive
boundaries by Root–a pull to midwicket off a rare short
ball and a backfoot punch to the cover fence–as the
session went England’s way as the visitors scored 73
runs in 30 overs in the session.
Following is the scoreboard :
England (first innings):
Rory Burns c Rishab Pant b R Ashwin 33
Dom Sibley (batting) 53
Dan Lawrence lbw Jasprit Bumrah 0
Joe Root (batting) 45
Extras : (nb-9) 9
Total : 140 for two in 57 overs.
Fall of wickets : 1-63, 2-63,
Bowling :
Ishant Sharma 9-2-12-0
Jasprit Bumrah 13-1-30-1
R Ashwin 20-2-52-1
Shahbaz Nadeem 10-1-28-0
Washington Sundar 5-0-18-0