Related Link : India’s tour of England
Sachin ‘Ton’dulkar produced one of his best innings for the Indians in his life. Indians were in desperate trouble at a miserable 14 for 3 with Onions, the pace bowler making the Indian batsmen dance at Chelmsford. A vintage Tendulkar’s counter attack however saved the day for the tourists as they ended at a respectable 336 for 7 at stumps on the second day’s play. Tendulkar got 171 out of those 336 runs!
The day started with England Lions stretching their overnight score of 379 for 8 to 413 for 8 declared. Tim Bresnan remained unbeaten with 126 while Chris Tremlett smased 32. The Indian innings began on a shaky note with Wasim Jaffer putting doubts about his place for the Lord’s Test as he failed for the third time on this tour. He was half cock to an inswinger from Onions in the 7th ball he had faced. Jaffer fell in the 2nd over and in the same over VVS Laxman was forced to nick one behind to be duck out, a third ball dismissal for him. The Indians were down and out when Dinesh Karthik was caught behind by Stuart Broad to bring in Sourav Ganguly to join Tendulkar. The partnership shaped out to be a fighting one but it ended when Ganguly played a reckless pull off Tremlett, falling for a personal score of 14 and the team total at 65 for 4.
Tendulkar could finally get an able partner in Yuvraj Singh who spent enough time to help his senior partner to steer Indians out of trouble. Tendulkar was 99 when Tea was called with Indians at 173 for 4. Yuvraj’s innings came to an end during the final session, playing a loose shot off Stuart Broad. He pushed for a place in the middle order with a patient 59 from 106 balls with 8 fours. MS Dhoni in the company of Tendulkar started to get going for the first time on this tour to help the master in putting on 99 runs for the sixth wicket. Tendulkar towards the end was toying with the bowling and in an attempt to go for a big one lost his wicket but not before a smashing 236-ball 171 which had 26 fours and a six. That innings clearly showed that he was still the Boss! The day ended with Zaheer Khan using the long handle to hit 3 fours and a six off leggie Adill Rashid in the final over of the day’s play. Poor Adil Rashid was already taken to the cleaners by Tendulkar and Yuvraj in one of his overs. Towards the end, MS Dhoni remained not out with 44 from 63 balls with 4 fours. Onions was bowled for 17 overs by Strauss in which he had taken 3 for 69. The third and final day is the last opportunity for the Indian bowlers before they get into the Lord’s Test.
England Lions 1st Inngs 413 for 8 declared in 97 Overs (Tim Bresnan 126* Joe Denly 83 Stuart Broad 50 Ravi Bopara 29, Zaheer Khan 3/119 Sreesanth 2/76 Ramesh Powar 2/96 Sachin Tendulkar 1/24) Vs Indians 1st Inngs 336 for 7 in 80 Overs (Sachin Tendulkar 171 Yuvraj Singh 59 MS Dhoni 44*, Graham Onions 3/69 Stuart Broad 2/54 Chris Tremlett 1/40) at County Ground, Chelmsford