India Cricket

Opener Murali Vijay's watchful unbeaten half-century and a stiff and scruffy resistance by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni late into the day meant that India managed to maintain the game at a tantalising balance going into Day 4, with a lead of 145 runs with six wickets in hand.

At the tea break, India were in the front seat and had tightly locked themselves in it, with two of their most patient batsmen at the crease.

Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara aren't the most excitable batsmen in the world. On Saturday afternoon, the duo got together for a stubborn and extremely vigilant partnership in the afternoon session to calmly build India's lead.

The London sun had melted away any possibility of thunderstorms which were predicted earlier in the day. Coupled with a stiff resistance from the away team's batsmen, the effect was immediately noticeable on some of the members of the crowd at Lord's, who took the opportunity to unabashedly grab 40 winks.

Perhaps that was a bit too harsh on Vijay and Pujara, whose innings were a masterclass on how to grind out a Test knock for your team when it's most needed, however dreary as it may appear to a neutral watcher.

Rarely did they wander off to the extravagant. The boundaries were scarce and countable on one hand. If Pujara's share were silken, elegant and opportune, Vijay's were plain and reliant on pure timing. 

They were in a zone of their own and probably wouldn't have noticed if the entire crowd was snoring. Their objective was not to entertain; it was to see themselves through to the end of the day unbeaten.

However, patient batting comes with its risks. The slightest of lapses in concentration can cause 110 for one to become 120 for four before you know it. Unfortunately for the visitors, that is exactly what happened in the third session.

Liam Plunkett, who had spent the entire series executing leg theory and fruitlessly bowling short to the batsmen from around the wicket, finally came to his senses after tea. He bowled a lot fuller from over the wicket, the natural angle, and immediately reaped rewards.

Pujara was the first to fall, to an uncharacteristic swipe at a delivery outside off-stump which you would expect him to leave even in his sleep.

Then, on the very next ball, Virat Kohli showed Pujara how to sway arms to a delivery. Unfortunately, it was the wrong delivery to do so as it jagged back in and took the top of off-stump. With a golden duck to his name at Lord's, Kohli's nightmare series continued, and India were suddenly in a spot of bother.

A spot of bother was to transform into a lot of trouble moments later when Stuart Broad, charged up with Plunkett's twin dismissals, banged it in short and had Ajinkya Rahane awkwardly fending for it.

The ball clipped what looked like his arm guard and lobbed up into the air toward short square leg where Matt Prior swooped in and took a diving catch. England and Lord's went up in hopeful appeal in unison and to Rahane's horror, umpire Bruce Oxenford raised his finger, agreeing that it had hit the glove.

India's first-innings centurion was gone for an unlucky five; India were wobbling at 123 for four, with a precarious lead of just 99 and had no way to challenge the decision. They had opted out of the technology to do so long ago.

Meanwhile, Vijay watched the unfolding of his team's batting line-up from the other end, probably wondering if his long and hard vigil had been worth it. He was soon joined by his skipper, who was perhaps the last reliable hope in rebuilding the innings.

Broad continued to pepper the new batsman with short balls, a deviation from his earlier, much successful, tactic of enticing Dhoni to swipe at fullish deliveries outside off-stump to induce a nick.

Dhoni, who is known to play stubborn innings himself in Test matches, took it to the chin—and on one occasion hard on the biceps—and continued to walk the swaying tightrope blindfolded.

The next half-hour or so until stumps would have been the most tormenting one for Indian fans, as their skipper looked like he was batting on a frying pan, awkwardly hopping, ducking and walking away to his right to reveal his stumps, as if inviting the hosts to take his wicket.

Vijay, meanwhile, shaken as he may have been with the proceedings, refused to show it as he carried on with his vigil, his focus fixed on the finish line like a race horse.

He brought up his sixth Test half-century with a whip off the hips to fine-leg for a boundary—one of the very few—off James Anderson. It had taken him 162 deliveries and 249 minutes.

And so, in their own innate ways, Vijay and Dhoni managed to make it to stumps unscathed, stretching India's lead to 145. They would know that the job is far from done; in fact they're only about halfway there.

England's highest successful run chase at Lord's is 282, achieved a decade ago. Their highest fourth-innings total at the venue is 307. India need to at least double their lead if they want some feeling of security when they go out to defend their target.

A lot depends on how far these two can carry on Sunday. Ravindra Jadeja, Stuart Binny and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are still to come, but they aren't know to play the patient innings.

England are bound to continue to attack the batsmen, knowing that they are in with a chance of grabbing the reins of this Test match from India's now fragile hold.

A lot depends on whether Vijay, who has played so defiantly to protect his wicket until now, can reform that bubble around him on Day 4. He has already batted four-and-three-quarters of an hour for his 59. He will be required to bat for at least half the time on Sunday if not more.

Vijay has scored four centuries in a 23-Test career so far; a fifth, should he get there and more importantly take India's lead past 300, could turn out to be a career-defining one.

All statistics via ESPN Cricinfo, unless otherwise stated.

The second Test between England and India at Lord's has tilted in the visitors' favour at the end of Day 2. England were slightly ahead with an hour to go before stumps, but two almost freak wickets at the fag end of the third session meant the hosts ended the day at 219 for six, trailing India by 76 runs.

As the day progressed, the colour of the pitch magically transformed from its Wimbledon green to a haystack yellow, almost as if someone had Photoshopped it, as the commentators joked on air.

It was a clear indicator that the pitch, which had provided ample assistance to the bowlers on Day 1 and the first session of Day 2, was going to ease out as the match progressed.

This made the toss won by Alastair Cook on Thursday even more vital. But as play drew to a close on Day 2, you couldn't help but think that England had wasted a golden opportunity to be on top of this Test match.

On the first day, after their captain had handed them first use of the green-top surface, the English bowlers kept it too short in two sessions out of three and allowed India to claw back from 145 for seven to an eventual 295.

Except for the afternoon session when four Indian wickets fell, the English bowlers were guilty of not making the Indian batsmen play enough. They were deservedly punished by Ajinkya Rahane's technical brilliance and the constant thorn in the side that is the Indian lower order.

As India came out to bowl on Day 2, they would have felt on top, having scored 100 runs more than what was expected of them. However, with four days to go, they would have known that the job was far from over.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar had been robbed of a game in both South Africa and New Zealand, probably because Indian captain MS Dhoni felt the nature of the tracks over there did not suite his medium-paced swing bowling.

However, if there was any country or conditions where Bhuvneshwar was expected to thrive, it was England. Unfortunately, the placid surface at Trent Bridge trolled any bowler who expected even the slightest bit of assistance from it.

Nevertheless, Bhuvneshwar bent his back and managed to grind out five English wickets out of nowhere, to add to his two half-centuries. Thus, when the covers were lifted off the pitch at Lord's on Thursday morning, he would've smacked his lips at the prospect of bowling here.

But as the English bowlers showed, it is one thing having a green pitch gifted to you and another to make use of it. As it turned out, India bowling second on the track, even though it continues to ease out every passing over, couldn't have worked out better for the Meerut lad.

Being given the new ball, Bhuvneshwar kept things very simple: He ensured that his length was nowhere near short and half-volley, he aimed for a line alternating between hitting the stumps and targeting the awkward area just outside off-stump, he got the ball to swing both ways and he just let the conditions do the rest.

And it worked out marvellously.

So effective was his bowling in the first spell that Dhoni just refused to take him out of the attack. His figures at the end of the long spell read 10-4-17-2, and he looked as if he would have had no problem carrying on.

As the day progressed, he was used for shorter spells of six and three overs, but even as the rest of the Indian bowlers struggled on the pitch as it lost its nip, Bhuvneshwar was in a groove of his own. He ended the day with figures of four for 46 in 23 overs, having accounted for the top four English wickets.

India will have to manage their best bowler well if they expect him to last five Test matches. This would mean him bowling lesser overs, which in turn would warrant the rest of the Indian bowlers picking themselves up.

India's two other pacers, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, went wicketless after a hard toil in London's hottest day of the year, and for good reason. Like their English counterparts, they kept it short and didn't make the batsmen play. Like their English counterparts, they were made to pay with a ton, by Gary Ballance.

If only they had observed Bhuvi a little closely.

Bhuvneshwar lost out to James Anderson for the man of the match at Trent Bridge, but he has made great strides in getting his team a much-coveted win away from home, at the mecca of cricket.

Both Anderson and Bhuvneshwar have stood out as their respective teams' trump cards, for the simple reason that they keep things simple. Bhuvneshwar could profit a lot from observing how Anderson, a far more experienced campaigner, exploits the conditions to his favour and bowls in the right areas.

Not since the retirement of Kapil Dev have India found another productive and genuine seam-bowling all-rounder. If Bhuvneshwar can continue to bowl in the right channels, bat responsibly and his workload is managed well by India, the 24-year-old could just turn out to be the answer.

On a day of three thirds, Ajinkya Rahane's mature and classic century on a difficult surface gave India the honours, as they ended Day 1 of the Lord's Test at 290 for nine, up from 145 for seven at one stage.

The Anderson-Jadeja Pushgate scandal had dominated headlines in the build-up to the second Test of this five-match series between England and India at the home of cricket.

Then, on Thursday morning, no one seemed to care about who pushed whom as the ground staff revealed the pitch to the public—it resembled a snooker table rather than a cricket pitch.

But by the end of the day, even the most hallowed turf in the world of cricket was pushed to the background, as a 26-year-old Indian batsman playing in just his seventh Test match, who had grown up batting on baked surfaces in Mumbai, provided a masterclass in how to bat and entertain on the green.

England had rectified their errors in length from the first session by the time Rahane walked out to bat for the first time in his career at Lord's, just after lunch. The hosts were bowling a lot fuller than before and James Anderson had just scalped Virat Kohli (25) with an almost unplayable delivery.

Rahane survived what has now become a customary afternoon session middle-order collapse for India, as he lost the company of Cheteshwar Pujara (28), MS Dhoni (1) and Ravindra Jadeja (3) before tea. Save for Jadeja, who was trapped in front by spinner Moeen Ali, all of Rahane's partners fell to fullish deliveries that extracted enough from the green to fox the tourists.

But Rahane hung on and refused to let his pin fall.

It wasn't pretty in the beginning. Rahane is a batsman who can appear a little scratchy when the conditions are difficult and usually takes some time to settle in.

As the session progressed, Rahane settled in by grooming full-length deliveries outside off to the cover boundary. On such a pitch, it was a gutsy effort as he slowly started accumulating the runs. What was planned to perfection was his picking of the right deliveries to score runs off.

Rahane soon had the crowd, who had booed Jadeja's entry and cheered his swift exit, behind him. As he leaned into his front-foot cover drives and stood tall and sturdy while punching and cutting shorter deliveries off his back-foot, the cheers grew louder.

His mighty pulls to the fence soon overshadowed any pushes and shoves that might have transpired in the players' tunnel at Trent Bridge last week. An effortless and picturesque straight drive for six off Anderson's bowling revealed his halo.

Rahane brought the action back to the cricket field in a delightful manner, as he played responsibly with the lower order and dug India out of trouble. Receiving much-needed support from Bhuvneshwar Kumar (36) and Mohammed Shami (14 not out), Rahane wrestled the control of the match back from the hosts, without so much as an ounce of aggression.

With a solid punch off the back-foot to the cover fence off the bowling of Anderson, Rahane soon brought up his second Test century in his 12th innings, adding to a couple more fifties. The introvert that he is, his reaction to a hundred at Lord's was restricted to a smile towards the Indian dressing room and raised arms while looking to the skies.

Thus, Rahane became only the ninth Indian to get his name on the famous honours board at Lord's and the first in his maiden appearance at the venue since Sourav Ganguly's debut ton in 1996, per statistician Mohandas Menon.

Out of Rahane's 538 Test runs so far, 530 have come away from home, where he averages just under 59. Since a forgetful debut against Australia at home last summer, the next six Tests he has played have all been on foreign fields, where he has thrived.

In Durban last year, he missed out on a century by a whisker. In Wellington earlier this year, he finally got to three figures in an innings which was quite similar to Lord's.

In just six months of his first Test away from home, Rahane is now the leading Indian run-scorer in foreign conditions for the past two years, overtaking Virat Kohli on Thursday.

His ton at Lord's not only proved his traditional class as a batsman, but went further in cementing his role as an all-weather player—an invaluable quality for an Indian cricketer.

It was only fair that a superb reflex catch taken by Anderson—England's best bowler—would result in Rahane's wicket less than four overs before stumps.

Rahane may have missed out on the privilege of leading the pack back to the dressing rooms at the end of the day's play, but it is due to him that India ever came close to such a scenario.

Durban and Wellington may not have resulted in an Indian win. Perhaps even Lord's may not. But what India have gained in Rahane's prowess is nothing less looking ahead.

All statistics via ESPN Cricinfo unless otherwise stated.

The first Test between England and India at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, ended in a tame draw, but that wasn't before a heart-in-mouth morning session for the visitors on Day 5 when a middle-order collapse left them struggling to save the match.

India should never have reached a stage where they would struggle to save the Test given the position they were in at tea on Day 3, with England still 252 runs behind in the first innings and with just three wickets in hand.

Nonetheless, the Indians would have had an uneasy lunch on Day 5, when England were barging through the door and trying to force an unbelievable win. Then, to the visitors' rescue, came the most unlikeliest of characters.

Stuart Binny's name was doing the rounds on social media ever since he was named in India's 18-man squad for the series back in May.

The 29-year-old all-rounder was coming off a solid Indian Premier League and a record-breaking bowling performance in a one-dayer in Bangladesh, but there were many sceptics in the Indian media when it came to his selection for such an important tour.  

The argument against Binny was that his medium-paced seam bowling was not going to trouble any of the English batsmen and his sloggy batting in the lower-middle order wasn't going to win India a Test.

The voices grew louder when he was given his first Test cap in the very first match of the series, ahead of the more experienced all-rounder, Ravichandran Ashwin, who was also the better bowler.

Binny validated all the doubts in the first innings, when he lasted all of 11 deliveries while batting, scoring a solitary run, following which his skipper allowed him to turn his arm over for only 10 of India's 145 overs bowled to England.

Thus, when Binny walked out to bat in the second innings, with India precariously placed at 184 for six, it was almost as if the Englishmen on the field were not the only ones hoping to get him out soon.

The media and Twitterati needed a fall guy in case India lost the match. However, Binny had decided that he wasn't going to be that guy.

In the IPL, Binny had carved the reputation of being a pinch-hitting slog-minded batsman, who came in at Nos. 6 or 7 and helped his team get some quick runs in the death overs.

However, the Binny that turned up at Trent Bridge on Day 5 was a different breed. He was a much more restrained batsman, but no less enjoyable and productive.

The Bangalore boy provided the first glimpse of his class when he leaned into a full-length delivery outside off-stump from Liam Plunkett and handsomely drove it on his front foot through the covers for four.

A few overs later, he displayed his back-foot prowess as he cracked Ben Stokes through the same region for another boundary.

Together with Ravindra Jadeja (25), Binny got India safely through to lunch without further loss. The duo carried on in the afternoon session and slowly pushed England out the door.

Jadeja fell in the first hour after lunch, but Binny strolled along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was fresh from a half-century in the first innings.

Under pressure, Binny batted responsibly and smartly, at just the right rate to not allow the  game to get stagnant. It wasn't long before he reached a fifty in his debut Test, providing the best possible response to his critics, many of whom had to eat their words.

For his Rajasthan Royals fans, he then offered a few snippets of his Twenty20 self, as he reverse-swept Moeen Ali for four. England's part-time spinner was later treated with more disdain as Binny danced down the track and whacked him inside-out over extra cover for a six.

Binny's match-saving innings was ended by an umpiring error 22 runs short of what would have been a fairytale hundred, albeit pointless as it would not have helped India win the match.

However, his half-century was the only thing that stood between India conceding a demoralising 1-0 lead in the series, given how they had played on the first three days.

And so, a man whose selection had been slated from all corners for four days of a Test match, came to the team's rescue when it mattered most.

Is Binny's spot in the side for the second Test safe?

It all depends on the nature of the surface that will welcome the two teams at Lord's. The spinners, like the fast bowlers, got absolutely no help from the lifeless Trent Bridge pitch and if Lord's is a anything similar then trust India to go in with the same line-up.

Here's what Indian captain MS Dhoni had to say in the post-match presentation, per ESPN Cricinfo:

We haven't had a seaming all-rounder but Stuart Binny can be someone who can really contribute for us in the future. I don't regret not playing R Ashwin because there was no help for the spinner. We had good combinations and I was happy with the bowling attack.

However, Ashwin does have two Test hundreds to his name on similar flat surfaces and thus it could be argued that he is an equally capable, if not better, batsman.

His off-spin could trouble England's six left-handed batsmen, assuming they play the same team, and he would also definitely be trusted to bowl more than 10 overs in an innings.

England have added slow left-arm orthodox spinner Simon Kerrigan to their squad for the second Test, per the Daily Mail, which could perhaps point towards a pitch with some assistance for the tweakers.

Or, it could just be that England were motivated by Jadeja's bowling performance, who didn't pick up any wickets but did enough to trouble the batsmen by exploiting the footmarks.

If Binny does end up missing out, it would be a cruel blow considering the importance of his knock on Sunday. For a debutant to show such maturity, character and temperament in a high-pressure situation, he deserves to keep his spot.

Often accused of being hyper-defensive in his tactics, England captain Alastair Cook must have been delighted that India’s skipper MS Dhoni decided to continue batting on the fifth day.

Not just that Cook took his first-ever Test wicket in the closing stages before the game was declared a draw, but because if the visitors had declared, it would have left a tricky session for England to face.

Because of its tricky nature, Dhoni should have declared and forced England to bat out the game, but he did not, and he may live to regret it.

England’s batting looks fragile and has done for some time, no more so than their beleaguered captain, who has gone 25 innings without a century.

He would have been dreading the prospect of having to face an hour or two in the middle on the final day, even with the pitch offering very little for the bowlers.

Given that he managed just five runs in the first innings, his struggles look to have continued as England’s rebuilding after their Ashes debacle continues.

At the other end, the inexperienced duo of Sam Robson and Gary Ballance—both very early in their Test careers—might have been vulnerable to cheap dismissals before the close.

Then, given how brittle they have been in the past, an England collapse would not have been out of the question.

Instead, Cook and Ballance were allowed to turn their arms over as India continued to hold on doggedly with the bat.

Their declaration, when it came, meant that the game was entering into the final hour and so defeat was out of the question as both captains finally shook hands.

For a comparison, let us step back to November of 2010, when England faced Australia at the Brisbane Cricket Ground in the first Test of the 2010-11 Ashes.

England’s second innings saw all their top three make centuries, with Cook making a magnificent unbeaten 235 as the visitors racked up 517-1.

Captain Andrew Strauss then chose to declare when he could have let his side continue to bat, and instead he elected to have 26 overs of bowling against the Australian openers.

While they only took one wicket, it meant England had some momentum as they moved forward in the series and had the psychological edge.

Dhoni could have done the same—allowed his bowlers an hour or two to run in hard with aggressive fields to see whether they could prise out a couple of wickets ahead of the second Test at Lord’s later this week.

It would have provided a great lift to his bowlers, who surely would have achieved more with the ball than by hanging around in the middle with the bat.

Then, given England’s struggles at the crease, Lord’s would have taken on a different feel, as opposed to now where the hosts have a marginal edge.

However, Dhoni was over-cautious, and he may come to regret that decision later in the series.

The first Test between England and India at Trent Bridge has reached a tantalising phase at the end of Day 3.

Before this series began, talk surrounding the Indian team had followed a familiar historical path. Their chances were always going to be dependent on how well their batsmen performed and how poorly their bowlers didn't.

Admittedly, there was no reason to doubt the trend. India were coming in with an inexperienced bowling attack led by a beanpole of a fast bowler who has been mocked more than he has been praised in his career.

In spite of successive six-wicket hauls in New Zealand, there was always 0-164 to balance it out. Ishant Sharma made no effort to dispel doubts regarding his inconsistency when he leaked runs and extras aplenty during India's two warm-up games prior to the Test series.

Meanwhile, the supporting cast did not involve a single bowler who had played a Test in England before. Surely, there wasn't much to be expected from this bunch.

But cricket has time and again proven that it's a funny game.

In two successive afternoon sessions at Trent Bridge, India's fast bowlers swung the match in their favour just when it looked like the hosts had begun to pull away with it.

On Day 2, it was a record 10th-wicket partnership between Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami that got India out of jail and helped them to 457 from 346 for nine, following a spectacular collapse of five wickets for 42 runs.

England started Day 3 brightly and took their overnight score of 43 for one to 134 without the loss of a further wicket until lunch, on a pitch that had lesser life in it than a graveyard.

However, post lunch, there was one Indian fast bowler who was alive and kicking.

A good spell from Sharma is the Indian equivalent of Halley's comet, goes one of the many Internet jokes at the 25-year-old's expense. On Friday, in the first hour after lunch, Nottingham got its first sighting.

Ishant produced a seven-over spell of such supreme quality that it brought back memories of his exploits at Perth during that wonderful tour of Australia in 2007, when the then 19-year-old had tormented Australian captain and one of the best batsmen in the world, Ricky Ponting.

In the space of 34 balls, Ishant dismissed two set batsmen in Sam Robson and Gary Ballance, along with one experienced campaigner who had gotten off to an imperious start, Ian Bell.

Mere statistics would do grave injustice to Ishant's spell, in which he unflinchingly found the right line, length and movement with such consistency that it resembled a video game.

Ishant placed the ball in that awkward area (for the batsman) just between short and full length and got the ball to move in both directions. The leg-before decision that he got in his favour for the wicket of Robson may have been fortunate, but he deserved his luck on the day—his spell for the session reading 7-3-29-3.

When Ishant is in the groove, it shows in his body language. He isn't the prettiest cricketer around. His long locks and unkempt stubble add to a shabby overall personality which gets even more exaggerated when he's being pasted around the park.

However, when Ishant is on song, there is this majestic air and flow about him. His locks sway into the wind as he charges in to bowl with a determined look on his face, the shabbiness having been camouflaged. If it's not the roar after a fallen wicket, it's the devilish grin he passes to the batsman when he beats him, letting him know who's on top.

MS Dhoni and India would hope his groove lasts at least five Test matches.

Ishant's success soon motivated the other two Indian quicks.

Shami got Moeen Ali caught at slip via one of the most awkward dismissals witnessed in recent times—before Bhuvneshwar sent Matt Prior and Ben Stokes packing within the space of three balls.

And just like that, England were 202 for seven on a pitch that had sworn to bore right from Day 1.

England's last three wickets came to their rescue and put on 150 runs before stumps were called, with the hosts still trailing by 105 runs and just a wicket in hand. This was after Bhuvneshwar's consistent derivation of movement in the air and the right placement allowed him to add two more wickets to his tally to make it four for the innings so far.

The Indians were rewarded for their relentless, tireless and accurate wicket-to-wicket bowling on an unrewarding surface. If the English bowlers had been praised for their resilience—prior to the last-wicket Indian partnership—the tourists, surprisingly so, even managed to overshadow that by keeping the line straighter and the length fuller.

If there was one area which would concern Dhoni it would be his fifth bowler, debutant Stuart Binny, who bowled all of six overs of the 106 delivered by India so far.

The medium-paced seam bowler looked impotent on the placid surface, and his selection over off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin eventually came into debate after India's part-time spinner, Ravindra Jadeja—although wicketless in 24 overs—managed to get enough from the surface and ask the right questions to trouble the batsmen.

Jadeja would even have got a wicket had Virat Kohli not spilled a difficult chance at first slip.

The unbeaten 54-run last-wicket partnership between Joe Root (78 not out) and James Anderson (23 not out) could just have won England the final session after Robson and Ballance won the first. But it was that middle session which yielded six wickets that has tilted the match in the visitors' favour, however slightly.

India's fast bowlers have won them two sessions and wrested a slender advantage in a Test match in England. It would have been the stuff of dreams not 60 hours ago.

From the fifth ball of James Anderson's 37th over at Trent Bridge—perhaps more importantly, the innings' 157th—Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck a crisp and rather classical cover drive to the sweeper on the boundary to bring up his maiden Test half-century. 

Frustrated, bewildered and utterly knackered, Anderson looked on in disbelief. 

From the very next delivery, Mohammed Shami clubbed the England spearhead straight over his head—and over the boundary rope—to reach his own fifty, which was not only his first at Test level but his maiden half-century in first-class cricket. 

The blow, delivered almost with contempt, brought up the 100-run stand between the 10th-wicket pair, only the eighth such partnership ever recorded in Tests against England.

Anderson cut an exhausted figure, reclaiming his cap from umpire Kumar Dharmasena looking as grumpy as only Anderson can look. You couldn't blame him. 

Somehow, out of somewhere, through the most unlikely candidates, India had conjured the steeliness that this team has so often been bereft of when venturing outside of home borders. 

Indeed, when Kumar and Shami came together, the visitors appeared to be on the brink of throwing away an unfathomably golden opportunity, falling from 344-5 to 346-9 in the space of 23 balls after lunch.

On a pitch more reminiscent of Nagpur than Nottingham, succumbing to an exhausted English attack would have been inexcusable, particularly given the manner of the Indian dismissals.

Just the third ball after lunch saw Ravindra Jadeja attempt a wild slash outside off-stump, the sort you'd see in the Indian Premier League, his feet rooted to the crease as an edge slowly found its way to Matt Prior. Ten balls later, MS Dhoni ran himself out scrambling for a needlessly risky single. 

Displaying the sort of nerves expected of a debutant, Stuart Binny reached for a wide one from Ben Stokes, only succeeding in steering it to Joe Root. Ishant Sharma then had his stumps knocked back when shouldering arms to Stuart Broad. 

Under the Nottingham sun and on the most Indian-like pitch you'll ever see in England, it suddenly looked rather dire for the tourists. 

And when Kumar, a No. 9 with just six Test innings to his name, instantly attempted to farm the strike—protecting his partner, Shami, averaging 3.33—India's collapse had almost descended upon comical. 

But then, much like England's battered ball on the Trent Bridge surface, the mayhem just died. 

Typically, fruitful 10th-wicket stands are dominated by an established batsman carefully rationing the strike to his tail-end partner—the way Angelo Mathews did with Rangana Herath at Headingley. 

Thursday's notable partnership, however, was put together by two men with 116 Test runs between them. 

You wouldn't have known it. 

Sapping the enthusiasm away from the hosts, Kumar dug in, grafting 14 runs from his first 40 balls, displaying a front-foot defence equal to that of any of his top-order teammates.

In that period, Alastair Cook's bowlers simply weren't afforded the chance to attack the inferior Shami who, thanks to his partner's shrewd work, faced just 16 deliveries in a little under an hour.

It's in these moments, when a pair of supposedly shoddy tail-enders begin to make opponents look foolish, that a Test cricketer's job becomes briefly unenviable.

Then, rubbing hot tar into the wound with a pitchfork, the No. 11 began to open his shoulders.

First, it was an awful-looking but extremely effective heave off Anderson for four. Then, a push forward against Moeen Ali flew past the resting bowler at slip. Adding to Anderson's trademark scowl, Shami then whipped the England seamer behind square to collect four more. 

Two balls later, Kumar sumptuously lifted Moeen over extra cover, forcing the crowd to quickly check whether it was actually Virat Kohli who had snuck under that Indian helmet. 

Cook, desperate to avoid a repeat of Sri Lanka's stand in Leeds, relentlessly opted for changes, rotating Anderson, Broad, Mooen, Stokes and Liam Plunkett in quick succession. The field, too, shifted dramatically, a range of in-out fields, catchers, sweepers and halfway men deployed in an attempt to break the partnership.

Without rolling the arm over himself, it was about all the beleaguered captain could have done. On a pitch denying life at even a molecular level, world-class bowlers were made to look like uncomfortable street performers by India's most unlikely pair. 

If that wasn't a triumph in itself, then Kumar and Shami's eventual 111-run stand became so, pushing a briefly brittle India into a position of dominance, showing the steely grit and sense of adventure that have characteristically escaped this Indian team.

Murali Vijay struck an unbeaten 122 on the opening day of the first Test against England at Trent Bridge, guiding India to 259-4 at stumps in Nottingham. 

Despite having failed to score a hundred on foreign soil in all of his previous 20 attempts, the opener proved to be the rock of his team's all-important first innings, calmly stroking his way to a memorable century to help his team overcome significant setbacks in the day's middle session. 

Indeed, the loss of India's finest batsmen in Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli in the space of just 10 balls after the lunch interval left the visitors lurching at 107-3 on a wicket seemingly ready to gift something more like 500 to MS Dhoni's men.

But alongside Ajinkya Rahane, and then more importantly Dhoni, Vijay propelled the tourists into a strong position by the conclusion of Wednesday's action, celebrating the fourth and most significant hundred in his Test career.

Below, we break down the three distinct phases of the right-hander's innings. 

Morning Session

When Vijay arrived at Trent Bridge on Wednesday morning, he surely must have grinned at what he saw: A brown, flat wicket more reminiscent of the surfaces found in Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata than what has typically been offered up to India during previous visits to English shores.  

Once Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat, that grin must have turned into an ear-to-ear beaming smile. When the ball refused to deviate a single millimetre for James Anderson, you can imagine a chuckle being enjoyed. 

And when deliveries from Liam Plunkett bounced several feet before Matt Prior? Well, the unassuming Indian was probably howling with laughter. Inside his own head, anyway. 

On a dreadfully lifeless Nottingham strip, Vijay got the visitors off to a flyer, racing to 55 with 11 boundaries by the time lunch arrived, leaving India at 106-1. 

Benefiting from the low bounce and lack of pace, the 30-year-old began his innings by frustrating Alastair Cook and England with a bevy of fours to the third-man region. Anderson, the man owning a sublime record at the venue, looked repeatedly unimpressed. 

Then finding his timing, Vijay became more expansive, clipping balls off his pads to the fence, while also stroking a sumptuous back-foot drive through cover.

After a dreadful tour of New Zealand, the opener had the platform he craved. 

Afternoon Session

Vijay was not the man one envisaged when pondering India's capacity to push England this summer. No, that was meant to be Pujara or Kohli or perhaps even Rahane, Dhoni or Shikhar Dhawan. 

In fact, a poor outing at Trent Bridge would have likely seen the right-hander disposed of for the experienced Gautam Gambhir.

Yet the right-hander's innings on the opening day of the series was defined by his unwavering attentiveness in the afternoon session, a resilient showing that was almost solely responsible for the Indians' gradual escape from an unexpected hole.   

In the wake of the sudden departures of Pujara and Kohli, Vijay refused to fall victim to Cook's attempts at starving the tourists, reining in his game to halt the home side's surge. 

Between lunch and tea, the opener faced 87 balls for only 37 runs, despite being well set on a sluggish Nottingham surface. Most notable was the right-hander's patience outside off-stump, only attempting to pierce the strong off-side fields when Plunkett and Stuart Broad grossly over-pitched. 

With Rahane providing the assistance, Vijay hauled India away from the trouble that briefly threatened to derail the opening phase of their campaign.

Evening Session

Resuming after the interval on 92, the defiant Indian watched his partner fall victim to Plunkett in the first over of the final session, which left India sitting precariously at 178-4. 

While by no means in desperate turmoil, the loss of Vijay in the next 30 minutes could have seen Dhoni's men capitulate on a wicket tailor-made to their strengths. 

Acknowledging the importance of establishing a partnership alongside his captain, the seemingly unflappable opener grafted his way toward a century, using almost nine overs after tea to reach his milestone. 

Treacherously, Vijay found himself stuck on 99 for 13 balls, eventually stealing a single to square leg to reach his first Test hundred outside of India. 

Content thereafter to allow Dhoni to push the score along—the team's leader raced to 50 not out from just 64 deliveries with typical exuberance against a tiring English attack—Vijay sauntered his way to 122 at stumps, ensuring the series' critical first day was won by the visitors.