Twitter Reactions: India sail through a rough England tide

Virat Kohli quite gladly shook hands with Alastair Cook a few minutes past 16:30 IST as he had Ravindra Jadeja at the other end while they were six wickets down and panting hard as they still had a few miles to travel before they could drop anchors at the harbor. Adil Rashid was a confident bowler who knew he had assistance from the wicket and the Indian batsmen, the better ones against spin weren’t reading him well and this was their best chance to beat the Indians right in the first match of the five-match series.

Cook would have loved to have another half hour to push for a result but with Kohli batting pretty stably and Jadeja also scoring runs at the other end the match ended in a draw while with just 4 wickets to win this might have well been England’s prettiest opportunity. Right from the moment the game kick started with the toss it swung against India and nothing quite went their way in the first couple of days.

England batted exceptionally well to post a huge total that almost ruled out their probability of losing the game. Centuries from Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes gave them a lot of belief as a team. India replied quite strongly as Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara scored hundreds but the middle order didn’t have much to add and they were 49 runs in deficit.

It was skipper Alastair Cook taking charge of the batting in the second inning with young Haseeb Hameed. They didn’t give the Indian bowlers a chance to force things and took it at their pace to gather a lead good enough to have the Indians under pressure. Hameed got a praiseworthy fifty on debut and Cook bettered it with a ton. England declared as soon as the skipper was dismissed with a few overs over a session left in play.

Gautam Gambhir was out for a duck but Vijay and Pujara held things together but once they were dismissed in quick succession and Ajinkya Rahane got out early the onus was on Kohli to take them through. He did that and was unbeaten on 49 but this is definitely a moral victory for the visitors while as far as the pitch is concerned will bear a different look in the following Tests.

Here is how Twitter reacted during the course of the game:

https://twitter.com/mohit_heble/status/797754513729921024

Zafar Ko safar Karaya Cover ke taraf ?? @virendersehwag paaji ur commentry
? #EngVsInd #BCCI

— GULSHAN KUMAR (@KumarGulshan999) November 13, 2016

acc to @virendersehwag DRS means Dharmsena Review System hahhhahhaahaa

— Paras Bisht (@24mercury) November 13, 2016

@virendersehwag kya baat hai? @ashwinravi99 aalu ki tarah hai..Kahi bhi adjust ho jaate hai
Wah…Wah..

— LiveURlife (@mt_blaze) November 12, 2016

Guy goes to Bank when Day 5 Started!

Comes back during the presentation! ?

— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) November 13, 2016

Visiting teams in India since 2011:
England: 2 wins, 1 loss, 2 draws
WI,NZ,Aus & SA: 0 wins, 16 losses, 2 draws#IndvsEng #IndvEng #EngvsInd

— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) November 13, 2016

I Just Wish We Had An Hour More. We Could've Won.#INDvsENG #INDvENG #SirJadeja

— Sir Ravindra Jadeja (@SirJadeja) November 13, 2016

Fantastic test match and very good start to the series #IndvsEng

— Eoin Morgan (@Eoin16) November 13, 2016

First Test Ends Up In Draw. No One Won The Match, Sir Ravindra Jadeja Won The Heart. _/_#INDvENG #INDvsENG #SirJadeja

— Sir Ravindra Jadeja (@SirJadeja) November 13, 2016

Virat Kohli just few seconds away from saying " bhenchodon, koi toh khada ho jao non-striker end pe "#IndvsEng

— Sunil- The Cricketer (@1sInto2s) November 13, 2016

Lost the toss, dropped 5 catches, missed run outs, allowed the opposition 500+. Sloppy work by India.

— if Shrikant,who can? (@HomerOpines) November 13, 2016

Catches dropped, and a couple of wickets too many on day 5. Besides that, India have played well. Batting last in India never easy.

— Snehal Pradhan (@SnehalPradhan) November 13, 2016

Ravichandran Ashwin might have failed to win this #IndvsEng Test with ball, but he certainly saved it with bat.

— Daksh Panwar (@Daksh140) November 13, 2016

https://twitter.com/Cricketracker/status/797765915982974976

All marks to England in this Test. India will go to the next one with couple of questions.

— Sambit Bal (@sambitbal) November 13, 2016

Difference between Kohli and tendulkar, is that srt would have holed out by now… #indvseng

— Rayhan Latif (@rayhanlatif) November 13, 2016

Virat Kohli in PC: Atleast we know how to draw matches now. Earlier we were either winning or losing in such situations. #IndvEng

— Chetan Narula (@chetannarula) November 13, 2016

https://twitter.com/DennisCricket_/status/797759960083886080

What a test match well done team india and skipper bravo knock under pressure ?????@imVkohli @BCCI

— Rahul Sharma (@ImRahulSharma3) November 13, 2016

Another example of why Test cricket must remain a 5 day contest #IndvsEng

— Alec Stewart (@StewieCricket) November 13, 2016

A brilliant test match. Well done to @englandcricket !! Gonna be an exciting series ? ?? #IndvsEng

— Sarah Taylor (@Sarah_Taylor30) November 13, 2016

England will feel they can get a result in Rajkot. Even if they don't, and India hang on, psychological damage has been done #IndvsEng

— Alan Wilkins (@alanwilkins22) November 13, 2016

https://twitter.com/Cricketracker/status/797769606182027264

@englandcricket Player of the Match and Man of the match? ??? pic.twitter.com/NcrwSfZ4Xy

— S H A H I D ? (@cricket_worm) November 13, 2016

Virat Kohli says: "I was surprised to see that much of grass on the wicket which shouldn't have been the case."#IndvsEng

— Sarang Bhalerao (@bhaleraosarang) November 13, 2016