Top 4 tenth-wicket ‘century partnerships’ for India

2. 111 runs by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami against England at Nottingham in 2014

The first Test match of the five-match series of the Investec Cup was played between 9^th July, 2014 and 13^th July, 2014, at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England.

Team India, under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, won the toss and elected to bat. Stuart Binny, son of the World Cup 1983 winning squad member, Roger Binny, made his debut in Test.

Losing the opener, Murali Vijay (12 runs in 24 balls) with the score at 33 runs, Cheteshwar Pujara joined Vijay and the duo put up a partnership of 73 runs the second wicket, when Pujara (38 runs, 69 deliveries, 7*4) was sent back to the dressing room.

Vijay also built up a 71-run partnership for the third wicket alongwith Ajinkya Rahane (32 runs, 81 deliveries, 4*4).  Rahane departed at the team score of 178/4.

Dhoni walked in to join Vijay in the middle and both plundered runs at will and established a 126-rn partnership for the fifth wicket, when Vijay fell after scoring 146 runs off 361 deliveries with 25 fours and one six.

Vijay’s 100 runs came in 214 deliveries with the aid of 18 fours.

At the fall of the 9^th wicket in the form of Ishant Sharma (1 run, 6 deliveries) at the team score of 346/9, the No 11 batsman, Mohammad Shami joined the No 9 batsman, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.

The two tail-enders abl’y addressed the onslaught of the likes of James Andersen, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and went on to establish a 111-run partnership for the 10^th wicket thereby helping the team to put up a massive score of 457 runs in the first innings.

For England, significant contributions from Robson (59 runs, 142 deliveries, 8*4), Gary Ballance (71 runs, 167 deliveries, 9*4), Joe Root (154* runs, 295 deliveries, 15*4) and James Andersen (81 runs, 130 deliveries, 17*4) enabled them to score 496 runs and take a lead of 39 runs.

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar took 5 wickets giving away 82 runs in 30.5 overs.

Half century plus scores from Vijay (52 runs, 119 deliveries, 7*4, 1*6), Pujara (55 runs, 105 deliveries, 7*4), Binny (78 runs, 114 deliveries, 8*, 1*6) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (63 runs, 138 deliveries, 10*4) aided India to play through Day 5 of the game and the innings remained inconclusive.

India had scored 391 runs for the loss of 9 wickets and the match ended in a draw.

For his all-round performance, James Andersen was adjudged the Player of the Match.