Indian Team started their innings after winning the toss & deciding to bat first with their regular openers - Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. It was expected that India will get a blast with their hard hitting openers but as it is said about the Indian Cricket Team- when expect them to perform they don't and when you are expecting the least out of them, they blow your head off with their magnificent performances.

Sehwag got out in the third over of the match and second over of Lee by getting himself trapped infront of the stumps. Rahul Dravid came out to replace Sehwag but could not stand out there for longer and got out for a score of 11 runs in the 11th over. Sehwag scored just a single before getting out when the Team's score was 5 runs and Dravid gave away his wicket to Johnson (c Hayden b Johnson) when the Teams score was 27-1.

Tendulkar replaced Dravid and he looked rock solid out there, building a partnership with Gautam Gambhir. Both of them managed to take the Indian score to 67 runs for the loss of 2 wickets from 26 overs till Lunch Time. Tendulkar scored 26 runs of 45 delivers with 4 boundaries and Gambhir scored 25 runs of 80 balls with 4 boundaries. Indian batsmen failed to face Stuart Clarke and Shane Watson as Clarke conceded only 5 runs from his 7 overs and Watson conceded 8 runs of his 6 overs.

Both these batsmen need to bat out atleast through the next session and give the Indian Team the start they were looking for. If the Indian Team manages 250 plus for the loss of 3 or 4 wickets till the end of the day, they will be in the leading position in this Test Match at Kotla, New Delhi. The additional advantage is with India already as they will not have to bat in the fourth innings on a spinner friendly wicket like this. Also this has been one of the luckiest Test Grounds for India as they have not lost a single Test Match in the last 21 years and won their last 7 Test encounters as well on this ground.

To get on top in this Test Match India needs one of these two batsmen (Tendulkar or Gambhir) to score a big century and ease of the pressure of early set backs from the still to come Indian batsmen.

Cricket360 wishes the Indian Team all the luck for this Test Match and especially all the Indian batsmen wisdom to maintain a balance between their defence and attack on the Australian bowling attack.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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