Gambhir guides India to 296/3 : Ind-Aus test 3 day 1

Daredevil Gautam Gambhir showed his real class after hitting 149* (his highest test score till date) against Australia on Day 1 of 3rd test match. India won the toss and choose to bat first. The decision to bat first, however, appeared to have boomeranged in the first hour itself with Virender Sehwag (1) and Rahul Dravid (11) cooling their heels in the pavilion.

India tottering at 27/2, was being stabilized by Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir. Gautam Gambhir played exceptionally well today. Though two wickets of India were fallen, he showed his temperament and tried to rotate strike with Tendulkar with ones and two's. Tendulkar, however, looked dangerous as he played some extra-ordinary shots through cover. Gambhir and Tendulkar contributed 130 runs partnership for third wicket. Tendulkar was caught in hands of Haddin just before the final over of tea.

Gambhir was involved in two century partnerships to stabilise the Indian innings after the loss of two early wickets. He added 130 runs with Sachin Tendulkar(68) for the third wicket , and then 139 with V.V.S. Laxman (batting 54) for the unfinished fourth-wicket partnership.

Talking about Australia bowling, Brett Lee got rid off Sehwag(1) and Bowling only his fourth ball of the match, first change bowler Mitchell Johnson angled it across and Matthew Hayden collected Dravid's ugly poke at ankle height in the first slip, however, they were not effective after early two wickets. Sachin and Gambhir played them comfortably.When the platform was safely constructed, Gambhir clipped balls repeatedly through the leg side. He began to cut and drive through the off-side more readily and capped off an attacking period by clubbing the six to move from 99 to 105. Stuart Clark was the only who controlled Gambhir. Gambhir got just 11 runs from 62 deliveries of Clark.he bowled exceptionally well.

In short, It was a bad day for Australia and India dominated completely at the end of first day of third test match.To view scorecard click here.

Stats watch:

1. Gautam Gambhir became the fourth player, after Michael Vaughan, Daren Ganga, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul to score hundreds in successive Tests against Australia since 2001.
2. Sachin Tendulkar's 68 was his 90th score of fifty and above in Test cricket, the most for any batsman. He equals Allan Border who scored 63 fifties and 27 hundreds.
3. Sehwag is 1 run away from G.Smith to become highest scorer of the year 2008.
   

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