Gautam Gambhir scores 31 on English county debut for Essex

Out of favour Indian opener Gautam Gambhir scored 31 for Essex against Northamptionshire on his county debut here on Wednesday.

The left-hander faced 67 balls and hit five boundaries before being bowled by right-arm seamer Steven Crook. Gambhir shared a 44-run second wicket stand with Greg Smith at the Castle Park Cricket ground at Colchester.

Essex are batting second in this four-day Division II county game after Northamptonshire scored 531 in their first innings with David Sales scoring 131 and Stephen Peters hammering 101.

Interestingly, all the five boundaries that Gambhir hit came off Pakistan-born pacer Mohammed Azharulla's bowling.

However after punishing Azharulla, Gambhir was subdued after tea when Crook was brought into the attack. He was ultimatley beaten for pace as he tried to work the ball towards square.

He wasn't able to get the ball off square and when Crook came in, in his bid to score quickly was bowled by the pacer.

Earlier, while fielding, Gambhir took two catches as well. One of those catches came off the bowling of Monty Panesar, who was criticised by England skipper Alastair Cook on Tuesday.