Filed under: Cricket, England Cricket, Tests, India Cricket
Second Test Day One (close): England 221 all out (Stuart Broad 64, Praveen Kumar 3-45, Ishant Kumar 3-66, Sreesanth 3-77) India 24-1 . England lead by 197 runs.England's man of the moment Stuart Broad smashed a top scoring 64 as England were dismissed for just 221 at Trent Bridge.
Coming in unusually low at number nine, the man who had taken seven wickets and smashed an unbeaten 74 in the First Test enjoyed a swashbuckling 73-run stand with Graeme Swann that pepped up a sagging total.
And with Jimmy Anderson taking a wicket with the very first ball of the India innings, England were able to show they were also prepared to make full use of conditions that have so far favoured the bowlers.
England were put into bat and started poorly. Alastair Cook made just two, the victim of a duff leg before call by umpire Marais Erasmus as Hawkeye showed that Ishant Sharma's delivery would have bounced over the stumps.
India, you may recall, had vetoed the review system for lbws this series but Cook couldn't have had many complaints as he had been given not out by Asad Rauf the previous over when an on-target Praveen Kumar delivery thumped into his pads.
Either way England were 7-1, Cook had recorded another low score and the hosts were in further trouble at 23-2 when Jonathan Trott edged a swinging delivery in Sreesanth's first over to VVS Laxman at second slip.
It took Kevin Pietersen to liven up the innings with successive boundaries off short-pitched Sreesanth deliveries.
Kumar then lost his cool when Pietersen survived a strong leg before appeal, which was subsequently supported by the redundant technology, and had to be pulled away from umpire Erasmus by Harbhajan Singh. Kumar soon had his revenge, of sorts, however with a short one that hit Pietersen and left him wincing.
England v India scorecard
Pietersen lasted just five balls after lunch before ticking a Sreesanth delivery to third slip to leave England on 73-3 and that soon became 85-4 when Andrew Strauss also chased a wide delivery and was caught in the slips off Kumar for 32.
Worse was to follow when Eoin Morgan lasted just three balls, trapped leg before for a duck by Kumar and 88-5 became 88-6 when Matt Prior, the century-maker of the previous innings, departed for a single, the victim of another away swinger from Sreesanth.
The onus was on Ian Bell to hold the innings together and he was dropped on 22 by Rahul Dravid which, had it been pouched, would have left England on 98-7.
But Dravid made amends by catching Tim Bresnan - recalled for the injured Chris Tremlett - for 11 off Sharma to leave England on 117-7 and when Bell threw his wicket away at 124-8 England were looking at a very poor total indeed, having shed six post-lunch wickets for the addition of just 55 runs.
Not for the first time, Broad came to his country's aid and launched into a counter attack that resulted in three boundaries in as many balls.
Swann weighed in with some enterprising shots as well as their fifty partnership was clocked up in just 42 balls but it ended on 197-9 when a Kumar snorter surprised him. He could only glove it to the slips and needed an X-ray afterwards too.
Broad was left to take the total over the 200 mark and England's Twenty20 captain reached his half century with a hefty clump back over Kumar's head.
In the end he perished on the boundary for 64 as England had to settle for 221 all out.
Now it was Anderson's turn to shine and the Burnley Express despatched Abhinav Mukund with the first ball of the India innings, with Pietersen taking the catch at gulley.
Dravid and Laxman survived until stumps but were never comfortable, especially when the former gloved Broad and saw it fall just short of the diving Prior.
REACTION:
Broad admitted to Sky Sports it had been the bowlers' day.
"Yeah, you always get that at Trent Bridge but I think that's why the players love coming here. It's so much better than seeing a 300 for one on that sort of wicket.
"India certainly won three quarters of the day but I think we managed to get a bit of momentum back towards the end and probably ended up disappointed not to have picked up more wickets."
On his batting display.
"It was good fun. Swanny and myself thought we were going to try to grab the momentum back a little bit and if it was in our area we would look to score. India had bowled fantastically well up til then - you can't blame anyone for throwing their wickets away."
On whether 221 is a competitive score.
"It was a good toss to win. We lost six pretty quick wickets but we are still in with a shout in this Test match. We know the morning sessions are key and we have to turn up next morning and make sure we make early inroads. The way we bowled this evening was encouraging because we didn't chase wickets. If we keep out patience we will be in the game."
On Swann's injury.
"He's fine. It was a heavy blow and he has told me to say he will be out there even with a broken leg. We are all questioning that but he'll be fine."
MEMORABLE MOMENT: Broad reaching his fifty in Bothamesque style. And to think he came in at number nine, after Bresnan.
PLAY OF THE DAY: Sreesanth justified his selection with a wicket in his first over but wasn't that effective before lunch. After it, he was swinging the ball all over the place, with the ball that dismissed Prior worthy of Richard Hadlee in his Trent Bridge pomp.
WHAT IT MEANS: On this showing, that there will be no queues snaking round Nottingham to get tickets on day five. Tomorrow looks likely to be the key day in this one.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Thomaz Bellucci Tim Clark Tomas Berdych Torsten Frings Vicente
No comments:
Post a Comment