Test- Day One

Gambhir century puts India on top

After two days of perfect weather since we arrived, the morning brought cloud and the scene when arriving at the ground had more of an Old Trafford in April feel than sub-continent.

Security not surprisingly was high when entering the ground, but this has been a feature of the tour to date. For the first time we have come across the double frisk, one person does the top half with a seated guard doing the bottom half!


Moving around the ground is not simple, the best marketing mind has managed to partition off the souvenirs shop, so that it took some negotiation with the guards (having only a pass to gate 1a with shop at 1b), another scan, another search before being able to reach the shop (having eventually worked out you needed to go through the ladies search area.

The cricket started well, with Broad opening with a good spell rewarded by the wicket of Sehwag. That brought in the out of form Dravid who looked uncertain early. England bowled ok, but the wicket seemed fairly innocuous and gradually Dravid became more confident with Gambhir showing the fine form he has been in during 2008. A delay for bad light at the outset and also before close (not unexpected) meant that only 70 odd overs were bowled but India ended in a strong position.