Related Link : India’s Tour of England 2011 : England Players : India Players : Scorecard of 1st Npower Test at Lord’s
Kevin Pietersen slammed a 3rd double century of his career to put England in control of the opening Test at Lord’s. India did well in dragging the English first innings close to the end of the second day with the hosts consuming 131.4 overs to put up 474 for 8 before the declaration. Praveen Kumar with his innocuous speed bowled brilliantly to capture a maiden five-wicket haul. India’s openers then saw through the 30 minutes before close without losing their wickets to raise hopes for a draw.
Tale of the Morning Session :
It was going to be a long day ahead for MS Dhoni’s mean with Zaheer Khan ruled out of action because of a hamstring injury. The overnight partnership between Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen resumed but wasn’t quite adding runs at a brisk rate. In the 62nd over, almost against the run of play, Jonathan Trott lost his wicket when he went back for a flick and ended up getting struck on the pad by a skidding inswinger from Praveen Kumar. Trott went back to the pavilion after a 140-ball 70 which put up 98 runs for the third wicket with Pietersen.
Trott’s wicket was going to be the only success for India all through the morning session and England got to 217 for 3 in 77 overs by lunch. Kevin Pietersen moved to 71 while Ian Bell was very positive to smoothly get to 28.
Tale of the Afternoon Session :
It didn’t come as a surprise when MS Dhoni took up the role of a third seamer after the lunch break to open the afternoon session. Rahul Dravid was given the job of standing behind the stumps. Dhoni almost got a wicket off the very first ball he delivered when Kevin Pietersen was hit on the pad by one that came back off the seam but the impact was outside off. The Indian Captain kept on getting some sort of movement off the pitch to keep the English batsmen under a check.
MS Dhoni almost had Pietersen for a second time when the tall right hander was on 73. Pietersen seemed to have nicked an away going delivery from Dhoni on the backfoot during the 80th over to the keeper and the Umpire gave it out. However, KP asked for a review and got the decision changed as the nick wasn’t spotted by hotspot and there was also the inside edge of the bat brushing the pad.
England progressed nicely after the close shaves of KP with Harbhajan Singh struggling to create any impression at all. Pietersen went past an 18th Test hundred and Bell was being very busy at his end. India took the second new ball in the 88th over. The new ball yielded results as Praveen Kumar unleashed a double blow in the 93rd over bagging the wickets of Bell and Morgan. First it was a well set Ian Bell (45 from 76 balls with 6 fours) who was forced to edge an away going delivery from Praveen Kumar to MS Dhoni who had to dive to his right to take a low catch. Bell added 110 runs with Pietersen taking England to 270 for 4.
Three balls after Bell’s exit, Praveen had England at 270 for 5 when Eoin Morgan appeared to have got an inside edge in his forward defence which was caught by the keeper. It was a beautiful delivery from Praveen which nipped back off the seam to go through the bat pad gap although it wasn’t clear whether there was a definite inside edge or not and moreover Morgan (0 from 3 balls) didn’t bother asking a review. Matt Prior who joined Pietersen after this took England to 305 for 5 in 103 overs by Tea.
Tale of the Final Session :
England got into the last session showing intentions of attacking the Indian bowling and set themselves up for a declaration. Matt Prior was very attacking and he raced away to 71 from 93 balls (with 7 fours) before he slashed his cut shot off a thick edge to get caught by MS Dhoni. Praveen Kumar was the wicket taker getting some kick and away movement off the seam to force an edge to end a 120-run partnership. The very next ball, Praveen found himself on a hat-trick when his full length late inswinger thudded low onto the pad of the left handed Stuart Broad to have him out for a first ball duck! Praveen almost had a hat-trick but the next man in Graeme Swann managed to block a late inswinger safely.
India got pounded by another 50-plus partnership, this time from Pietersen and Swann. In no time, the pair added up 61 runs before Graeme Swann (24 from 28 balls) got bowled looking to flick right across the line on the backfoot to get bowled by a straighter one from Suresh Raina which hit the off stump from round the sticks. England declared its first innings as and when Kevin Pietersen accelerated to complete a double century. He remained unbeaten on 202 from 326 balls with 21 fours and a six.
The best bowler for the visitors was Praveen Kumar taking 5 for 106 besides bowling 40.3 overs. Ishant Sharma was unlucky not to have got any wickets in his 32 overs while Harbhajan Singh was very ordinary, leaking 152 runs in 35 wicketless overs!
It was just 30 minutes of batting left for India on Day 2 which both Abhinav Mukund and Gautam Gambhir saw through safely taking the score to 17 for 0 in 6 overs. There were a few difficult deliveries to handle from Anderson and Tremlett but the two left handed openers also showed a lot of promise in their techniques to survive.