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Kolkata Knight Riders

about a year ago

KL Rahul, with an unbeaten century (127*), and Rohit Sharma, with a gritty 83, took good care of the Indian innings as the visitors posted a solid 276/3 against England on the opening day of the Lord's Test on Thursday.

The opening pair started off slowly and watchfully against the likes of James Anderson, Ollie Robinson and Sam Curran. The first session saw just 46 runs scored without any wicket, which was the lowest seen in a Lord's Test match.

After lunch, the duo started flourishing. En route to their 126-run partnership, Rohit was the more dominant one. His 83 was studded with 11 boundaries and a maximum.

Just when it looked like Rohit was on his way to get his first overseas Test century, one of Anderson's seam-up deliveries, that angled in to him, castled the Indian batter.

The 126-run partnership was India's third century opening partnership since 1952 at the Lord's. Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy had achieved a 106-run opening partnership earlier. Another pair to stitch a hundred-run stand was that of Farokh Engineer and Sunil Gavaskar back in 1974.

After Rohit's dismissal, Rahul played the role of the anchor as he started hitting the outside-off deliveries to perfection. He had 12 boundaries and a six to his name.

Even though Cheteshwar Pujara fell early (9), captain Virat Kohli looked comfortable in the middle with a 42. It was Robinson who removed him a while before the end of day's proceedings.

The match had a delayed start due to rain and India were put in to bat first after they lost the toss. There was further interruption due to showers after the start but the Indians made good use of the rest of the play time to get a grip over the match.