SunstarTV Bureau: In-form Joe Root produced yet another classy hundred and stitched a 200-run stand with opener Dominic Sibley (87) to put England in command against India on the first day of the opening Test at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.
The day started off in good fashion for England. Their openers, Burns and Sibley started off in a gradual manner. They kept attacking the loose balls and respected the deliveries that they know could do them some damage. They almost saw off the challenge until Lunch and that is when Burns played a rash shot and lost his wicket. Lawrence followed him back shortly after for a duck. Then came the resilience by the duo of skipper Root and Sibley. They kept going at it from the post Lunch session and have battled it out until the end of the day, stitching a 200-run partnership. Whatever the Indian bowlers kept throwing at them, these two kept fending it off. Root, on his 100th Test appearance, went onto score a 100 as well. Sibley was well on his way to reach his hundred but fell right towards the end of the Day.
A wonderful day of play, where the visitors came to foreign conditions and have shown their might on the very first day of the Test. The Indians will be tired, physically and mentally, after this day but they know that this is just Day 1 and there are four more days remaining for them to leave a mark on this game. They will be raring to come out and start strong on Day 2, whereas the English batters will want to pile on the runs and compound the misery on India.
