Bengaluru: A six to reach his fifty and a four to reach his century, Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar has made it up to the Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy crowd for all the hardship they had to under go to just to see this blockbuster clash between India and England on Sunday.
Graeme Swann interrupted smooth proceedings of India by packing off Gautam Gambhir at 51 here at Chinnaswamy Stadium. Sachin and Gahbhir amassed 134 runs in the last partnership after the team lost opener Virender Sehwag early on into the match.
Gambhir left his off stump exposed while trying to play Swann to the third man in search of another single, skipper MSD has sent in Yuvraj Singh instead of Virat Kohli at number four.
Sachin is keeping his famous cool at Bengaluru and looks as fresh as he came in at 95, this could be a long innings for him, who reached his 14th World Cup 50 in 68 balls - with a fantastic six.
Gautam Gambhir worked to stabilise the Indian innings. Veeru had given the English enough catch practice before Prior caught one behind the stumps to send him back to the pavilion at 35.
Earlier, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat against England in a World Cup Group B match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
England captain Andrew Strauss is bringing pacers back to attack after his spinners were beaten by the Indian batsmen.
India made one change from the team that beat fellow co-hosts Bangladesh by 87 runs in Dhaka, bringing in leg-spinner Piyush Chawla for wayward fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.
That gave India a second spinner alongside off-break bowler Harbhajan Singh.
England made two switches from the side that scraped a six-wicket win over the Netherlands after fast bowler Stuart Broad was ruled out with illness, bringing in fellow seamer Ajmal Shahzad.
They also dropped all-rounder Ravi Bopara and, like India, opted for a second spinner in left-armer Michael Yardy on a pitch expected to take turn.
This match had originally been scheduled for Kolkata but was switched to Bangalore after International Cricket Council officials said work still needed to be done on the Eden Gardens ground to make it tournament ready.
India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wkt), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Piyush Chawla, Munaf Patel
England: Andrew Strauss (capt), Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior (wkt), Michael Yardy, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Ajmal Shahzad, James Anderson