England on top after interesting day

England enjoyed a fruitful opening day of the third Test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, reducing India to 273 for seven at stumps, which would have been even less impressive had Sachin Tendulkar not made a battling 76.

England enjoyed a fruitful opening day of the third Test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, reducing India to 273 for seven at stumps, which would have been even less impressive had Sachin Tendulkar not made a battling 76.

The Little Master used 155 deliveries in his innings and never looked truly set, but there were flashes of his brilliance interspersed between the edges and he dragged the score to a decent position before falling to the excellent James Anderson.

The England paceman was the pick of the bowlers, taking three wickets for 68 and hardly ever strayed from his line. He also got good swing, both regular and reverse, and made life tricky on an otherwise decent batting wicket.

At the start of the day, England captain Alastair Cook's dire run of losing tosses continued, as India skipper MS Dhoni elected to bat first. Cook has yet to win a toss in five attempts as captain, and said he would also have chosen to bat first.

The Eden Gardens wicket, which had been touted as 'fast and bouncy' was, in fact, slow, cracked and good to bat on in the morning. The India openers had an easy time of it until a silly run out, and Gautam Gambhir reached the lunch break with a half century.

Gambhir and Virender Sehwag easily dealt with the newly fit Steve Finn early one, and went at four to the over until Sehwag went out with the score on 45. He failed to pay attention to his partner while running for a third and didn't notice that Gambhir had stopped, thus he was forced to turn back and was out by a country mile.

Gambhir then went on for the rest of the morning alongside Cheteshwar Pujara, who again looked calm and assured, until he was bowled by Monty Panesar just before the break. The spinner sent down a ripper arm ball that clattered into Pujara's stumps with the score on 88.

Tendulkar was in the middle with Gambhir at lunch, having scored just a single, while the opener had 50 off 91 balls. The opener and the veteran endured a torrid time for the first 10 overs after the break, as England's bowlers dominated.

Panesar was particularly superb, keeping the line tight and not allowing much room for shots to be played. He induced the edge a number of times, and the fact that Tendulkar was still in the middle at tea was a small miracle.

Gambhir only added 10 runs to his score in the afternoon, before falling to Panesar. The spinner pitched it in the rough and it spun away from the left hander, and he nicked it solidly to Jonathan Trott in the slips, who held on well.

Tendulkar then batted with Virat Kohli for seven overs, but the young batsman's poor series continued and he could only make six runs before walking back to the hut. Anderson remained the only England paceman to take a wicket in the series when he got Kohli to edge it to Graeme Swann at slip.

Yuvraj Singh then came to join Tendulkar, and they battled to tea, resisting as England used reverse swing to good effect thanks to the rough wicket that scuffed the ball up well. Yuvraj was on 14, having survived a few fortuitous nicks himself.

India lost three more wickets in the evening session, as Tendulkar and Yuvraj finally found their feet together just to be sent packing. Yuvraj tamely popped a Swann delivery straight to Cook in the covers for 32, while Sachin was caught behind by Matt Prior.

Ravi Ashwin was the final wicket to fall on the day, an over before the close, as Anderson used the new ball perfectly and sent the ball clattering into Ashwin's stumps for 21. Come day two, Zaheer Khan and Dhoni will need to properly utilise the flat-ish track before it deteriorates.

India: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma

England: Alastair Cook, Nick Compton, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Samit Patel, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar, James Anderson, Steve Finn

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