Who said what: World reacts as India take honours at the end of Day 1 even after Sam Curran's half-century
The Indian team came into the match with a lot of confidence after the emphatic win in the third Test match. The bowlers provided the right start for India as they picked up four wickets in the first session. After the start of play after lunch, the pace attack accounted for two more wickets leaving England in a spot of bother as the scorecard read 86-6.
Just when the visitors were looking to assert dominance, they ran into England's first Test hero, Sam Curran. The 20-year old stitched a useful 81 run partnership for the seventh wicket with Moeen Ali, who was playing his first match of the series. Even after losing Moeen Ali, Sam Curran continued his good work and helped England post a total of 246 by scoring his highest score in international cricket, 78.
The Indian openers had to bat for a tricky period at end of the day. In the four overs that they faced, KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan remained unscathed as India trailed England by 227 runs with 10 wickets in hand at the end of first day's play.
On what was predicted to be a good batting surface, Indian bowlers did their job efficiently and it's time for the batsman to do their work if India wants to level the series. India can have the match in the complete control if the batsmen see off the new ball as batting seemed to ease out as the ball got worn out in the first innings.
Here's how the world reacted to Day 1 of the fourth Test between India and England:
Jasprit Bumrah:
India's opening bowler for the match spoke at length about the Dukes ball at the end of day's play. "It's quite interesting to bowl with the Dukes ball. When I was sitting out in the first two matches, I was keeping an eye on what the other bowlers were doing. We also wanted to bat, but when we started to bowl there was a lot of seam and swing early on, more than we expected."
When questioned about the wicket of Jennings he said "Always good when the plan works. The ball was swinging so I thought why not try the inswinger. Even when the ball is not reversing, the batsman tries to see the shine because the shine is prominent. I usually hide it often."
He also spoke about the inswinger at the press conference "that's not a new ball. I usually have the in-swinger (to the left-hander) and the out-swinger to the right-hander. I bowled that to Chris Gayle in the World T20 semifinal as well. It's not a new delivery. When you have too many options, you don't want to use all of them in a single day. Whenever you feel that option is suitable, you use it."
"There's always a lot of hard work. Because I try to always learn new things and add them to my armory. It's good to have a lot of options because you're always in a good space when you're bowling in the match. That is always my aim. I never get happy that I've got all the deliveries. I want to keep on improving and add new deliveries to my armory so that it helps me in the match situation."
Concluding the interview he expressed his views about England's total and his skills with the bat: "We start of the day. We bowled well in patches and they played well too. I've not played a single ball after the IPL. I'm trying to bat in the nets."
Sam Curran:
Taking to the media the press conference the young all-rounder said that he was not trying to prove a point to the selectors but was trying to his best for his side. He said that "you just try to do the best you can for your side, it wasn't proving a point at all."
"I just tried to play like I played for Surrey last week and play the way I do – nice and positive and get some nice partnerships, not trying to overthink it. Luckily enough it came off and we've got a decent score on the board. I was unlucky to miss out last week, but I love being around the squad, around some great names in the team. I'm learning so much, I'm just enjoying my cricket," he added.
Sachin Tendulkar:
Harsha Bhogle:
VVS Laxman:
Micheal Vaughan:
Aakash Chopra:
Harbhajan SIngh:
Sanjay Manjrekar:
Deep Dasgupta:
Chetan Narula:
Bazid Khan:
Stat mania:
Other interesting tweets to ponder over: