Indian opener Wasim Jaffer celebrated his return to international cricket with an aggressive half-century yesterday after Paul Collingwood's maiden century bolstered England in the opening Test match.
Jaffer struck an unbeaten 73 and shared an imposing second-wicket partnership of 125 with skipper Rahul Dravid (40 not out) as India reached 136 for one in a reply to England's first-innings score of 393, which revolved around Collingwood's unbeaten 134.
Utilizing the support from the tailenders, Collingwood frustrated the Indian attack until after lunch before he ran out of partners.
In reply, India lost opener Virender Sehwag (2) cheaply before Jaffer, making an impressive return to the Indian Test side after three years, unleashed his firm drives to hit 13 boundaries from 170 deliveries.
Dravid's composed 114-ball knock contained six boundaries on a pitch that blunted England's pace.
Sehwag caused his own downfall, hitting paceman Matthew Hoggard straight to Kevin Pietersen at short mid-off.
Playing only his sixth Test match, Collingwood struck four sixes and 13 boundaries off 252 balls in his unconquered six-hour knock to revive England, which had slumped to 246 for seven onn Wednesday.
Resuming yesterday at 53, Collingwood lost overnight partner Hoggard (11) in the 10th over of the day, but shared a brisk 60-run partnership for the ninth wicket with Stephen Harmison and then added 66 more for the last wicket with Monty Panesar to spike the Indian bowlers' hopes of wresting control.
"The last three batsmen did a fantastic job and played a big part to help me along," Collingwood said. "It wasn't easy to time your shots or penetrate the field."
"Once I got into the 90s I made sure that I got to the century," he said.
Muttiah Muralitharan yesterday claimed six wickets as Sri Lanka's bowling attack dismissed Bangladesh for 181 in its second innings on the third day of the first cricket Test.
Sri Lanka now needs 138 runs from 10 wickets to win.
Muralitharan's haul, at the cost of 54 runs, made him the first cricketer to take more than 1,000 international wickets -- in both Test and limited-overs matches. He now has 1004 wickets from 100 Tests (593) and 270 one-day internationals (411).
The offspinner also took 3-87 in Bangladesh's first innings.
"I am happy with the milestone," Muralitharan said. "I am now looking forward to seeing my team win this Test."
RSS