Nottingham: England fast bowler James Anderson today expressed unhappiness at the placid nature of the pitch on offer at the Trent Bridge for the first cricket Test against India, saying that the wicket assisted the visitors more than the home side on the first day.
Riding on opener Murali Vijay's unbeaten 122, India took the day one honours by reaching 259/4 at stumps today. "We are fantastic hosts," said Anderson jokingly at the press conference after the day's play.
"It is a little frustrating because you want it to be an even contest between the bat and ball, and it does not seem to be at the moment," he said. "But we have been aware as a bowling unit that the Test pitches will be more batsmen friendly. So I think our bowling was fantastic today. We could have moaned about it and worried about it, but we just gave our best," he added.
It was a frustrating day for the hosts as much talk centered on the placid pitch laid out for this Test match. It is the third such pitch in succession for a Test this summer and considering that England lost to Sri Lanka prior to this series, it will not have pleased the home side.
Anderson, who took two Indian wickets for 70 runs, said that his side will be looking to restrict India's first innings score to 400.
"It is a good batting pitch, but we will be looking to restrict them to something around 400," he said. "Ideally we would like to bowl them out for much lower than that but given the pitch I think we will take 400. But we need to rest up today and then come back tomorrow and get the remaining six wickets as early as possible," he added.
India sped off to a great start but were then pegged back by quick wickets after lunch. But Vijay held the innings together, putting together a 71-run partnership with Ajinkya Rahane and then an 81-run unbeaten partnership with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to anchor his team to safety.
