Twitter Reactions: New Zealand nose ahead at the end of day 1

The Eden Gardens witnessed history as India started proceedings of its 250th Test match at home soil against the Kiwis. Earlier in the day, it was Virat Kohli who won the toss as India elected to bat first. Ross Taylor was captaining the visitors in Williamson’s absence.

India made two changes in the winning XI from the first game. Shikhar Dhawan was brought in for the injured KL Rahul while Bhuvanesh Kumar replaced Umesh Yadav. The Kiwis began with a bang as they had Dhawan back to the pavilion in no time.

The bowlers dominated throughout the session as stalwarts like Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay were dismissed cheaply. At 46/3, India surely needed some respite from the other batsmen. That was when they had two of its best batsmen at the crease of the traditional format.

Both Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane rose to the occasion as they recovered India from the early slump and put them in a commanding position. Both missed out on well-deserved 100s as Pujara got out for a scintillating 87 while Rahane too played a valiant knock of 77.

Also read – India v New Zealand, 2nd Test, Day One – 5 Talking Points

After failing to get a single wicket in the second session, NZ bowlers struck in the third session. Rohit yet again played a loose shot and got out scoring 2 (12). Ashwin got a start but was trapped in front of the stumps.

Henry bowled fiercely well for his 3 wickets. Jeetan Patel, the man on comeback also did a fine job as he got a couple of wickets. The day belonged more to New Zealand as they first toppled the Indian top order and later pulled things back in hand after Pujara-Rahane seemed to take the game away at one stage.

Twitter had some amazing reactions for the game. While the trolls had a good start as Rohit and Dhawan had a bad day, there was much adulation for Pujara and Rahane for their classical innings though they failed to convert their half centuries into big ones. Here are some of the best tweets throughout Day 1 of the Test match:-

https://twitter.com/darrkeaage/status/781708945727553536

https://twitter.com/denniscricket_/status/781707584424116224