The high-profile India tour of England in 2014 started on a blistering note. The first Test match between the two sides saw the pacers ruling the show but with the willow in their hands. England’s veteran seamer James Anderson took the Man of the Match trophy home for his 81-run knock. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami also made headlines as they smashed a half-century each.
The first Test match at the Trent Bridge in Nottingham commenced with visiting skipper MS Dhoni winning the toss and making the choice of batting first. The first innings saw India starting on a terrific note. The opening batsman Murali Vijay went all guns blazing against the opposition bowling line-up to register a score of 146. He was aptly supported by Dhoni who added 82 runs to the scoreboard.
Meanwhile, it was the duo of Bhuvneshwar and Shami who managed to grab all the eyeballs. The two seamers stitched a 111-run stand for the last wicket to propel India to a score of 457. Following the total of 457, Joe Root led the attack for the hosts. Root showed his resilience and valiance as he played a remarkable knock of 154 runs.
The middle-order batsman found a suitable ally in the form of the last man James Anderson. India dropped Anderson on 46 and that costed them a lot as the seamer produced a record-breaking partnership of 198 runs with Root.
The duo of Anderson and Root surpassed Australia’s Phil Hughes and Ashton Agar, who had scripted a 163-run partnership for the last wicket at the same ground in 2013.
Anderson also achieved a personal milestone during the game. With his knock of 81, the pacer surpassed the previous highest score by an England number 11, the 59 not out made by John Snow in 1966.
This was also the first time that the players coming to bat at number 11 from both teams smashed a half-century in the same Test match. Meanwhile, the match ended in a draw.
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