India sail strong at the first day stumps of the fourth and final test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy played in Nagpur. After a rather shaky start, the Master Blaster helmed the innings and put India in a dominant position at 311-5.

Virender Sehwag came to open with debutant M Vijay after the newly appointed skipper Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Gautam Gambhir was ruled out of the game, after ICC rejected BCCI’s appeal against the one-match ban levied on the Delhi batsman. Sehwag gave India exactly what he’s expected to, a crackling start with a scoring rate exceeding five. Vijay was going good in his first international appearance when he was sent home for 33 by Shane Watson. This was shortly before tea and within a span of next 18 runs; India had lost Sehwag and Dravid as well. That reduced India to 116-3 and Tendulkar was then needed to perform. He scored 146 runs together with VVS Laxman for the fourth wicket and sustained India in the game.

Scoring his 40th test hundred, Tendulkar has reiterated that sunset is still a day away. After two of the Fab Five bowing out in the current series, there is evident pressure on the remaining three. However, Sachin is surely in no mood to go as he stuffs his critics’ mouths with his brilliant performances, one after another. He opened his innings of 109 with a four, surviving a run-out chance at 74 and two drops at 85 and 98. He was dismissed shortly before the stumps and Australia must be delighted to see their tyrant not playing tomorrow.

Jason Krejza finally debuted today and registering the fact that he nailed Laxman, Sehwag and Dravid he had a fantastic start. However, his 3-138 might not impress the seniors much. Brett Lee failed to fire yet another time, going wicketless today.

The match has lots to look forward to. Sourav Ganguly will add the former batsman tag to his name after this match and he would certainly want to finish on a high note. Although one down in the series, Australia look resilient after the Delhi test and they would certainly like to be the joint winners of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 

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

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