England vs India 2nd Test: Day 1. India-290-9
England failed to get out the tailenders quickly again as they let a commanding position against India slip at Lord’s.
England, who are looking for their first Test match win in nine matches, saw the Indians battle back from 145-7 to end the day 290-9. The pitch was a seamer’s dream: pace; movement; carry and plenty of swing were all on offer. However, in the first session England bowled far too short, though all of England’s four quick bowlers offered some excellent deliveries; they caught plenty of edges, the majority of which were dropped, meaning that they only managed to take two wickets at Lunch, far fewer than they perhaps should’ve done.
In the second session things improved for England as they managed to take four wickets with the tourists going into tea 140-6. Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli both failed to build on promising starts and captain MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja, awaiting a hearing alongside James Anderson for an incident between the two in the First Test, were dismissed for 1 and 3 respectively. It was an excellent session for the hosts as they took quick wickets-India went from 86-2 to 140-6-and took full advantage of the excellent bowling pitch. At that point it looked like England would be able to bowl out India for around 180 or fewer and be able to start their response to India’s First Innings that evening.
Alas, England brought back memories of the First Test, where Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma put on a century stand for the last wicket and failed to take the final three wickets after they started the session with an early wicket. Ajinkya Rahane made his second Test century, Bhuvneshwar Kumar made 36 and Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami are still in having put together a promising partnership already. India are 290-9, meaning England will have to take the final wicket tomorrow morning instead of batting from the beginning as they would have wanted.
Another record has been and gone in this series. James Anderson’s four-fer means he is now the leading wicket taker in England as he took Fred Trueman’s record outright. At the start of the day’s play both were on 229 wickets but the Lancashireman overtook the Yorkshireman and is now on 233 wickets in his homeland.
So why did England fail to capitalise on the glaring opportunities presented to them in the form of the green wicket and their skittling out the top order for under 150? As mentioned earlier England bowled far too short and dropped too many catches, letting India off the hook. The second session was arguably their best bowling performances since last summer but poor field settings and some mistimed bowling changes meant that England could not finish off what they started once again. One of the key moments in the final session was when Liam Plunkett replaced Moeen Ali. Plunkett was then carted around the field and instead of bringing Ali back on to stabilise things but Cook chose to let Plunkett continue and the current Yorkshire bowler continued to concede runs.
England absolutely must take the final wicket immediately tomorrow and if Cook can finally put all his troubles behind him and start batting like the legendary figure he once was then England will have a chance to take a lead in the series.
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