Birmingham: Victory is now a distant dream for Team India in Edgbaston as England sit on top with 232 runs lead in the first innings of the 3rd Test. If the pacers gave control to the hosts on the first day by wrapping up Indian innings for just 224, the batsmen made the visitors bite dust on the second day.
It was yet another torturous day for the No.1 team in England as lackluster bowling and poor fielding helped the hosts finish the day at 456/3. The visitors’ attack just lacked the bite as they were hammered badly by the England batsmen after a brief lull in the morning session.
After morning drizzle delayed the start of the day's play, Indian seamers bowled a good line and length and didn’t concede too many runs in the first hour. But the visitors soon lost the plot as a buoyant England demolished the Indian bowlers during rest of the day.
And the man who did the maximum damage was Alastair Cook (182*), who rediscovered his lost form at the right time. Indian bowlers had no answer to Cook’s brilliance as he first shared a daunting 186-run stand with skipper Andrew Strauss and then slammed his 18th Test ton and approached a double ton to put his side in total command. Also read: Match report day 1
After going wicket-less in the morning session and first hour after lunch, India were fortunate to get the first breakthrough in the form of Strauss, courtesy poor umpiring by Simon Taufel. Strauss who was fast approaching his ton was bowled out on an illegitimate delivery of Amit Mishra.
However, the visitors failed to capitalize on the first breakthrough as Ian Bell (34) shared 66-run stand with Cook for the second wicket before falling to brilliant swing by Praveen Kumar. Bell survived a scare when Rahul Dravid, the man who has taken the most catches in Test cricket, dropped a sitter in the second slip off S Sreesanth.
The pair of Cook and Kevin Pietersen then took the game away further from the Indians. The duo ruled the afternoon session and piled up 122 runs for the third wicket before Praveen got Pietersen (63) trapped leg before wicket.
The 31-year old batsman was uncharitable to the Indian bowlers from the word go, unlike Cook who was more humble during his innings. Pietersen put the Indians on back foot during his quick fire knock that was studded with 9 boundaries and a six.
After Pietersen’s dismissal, Eoin Morgan gave ample support to Cook in stamping the authority by the end of the day. Morgan (44*) made a shaky start but slowly grew in confidence. The left-handed batsman got a life in the final over off Mishra as Dravid messed up another chance to sum up the hard day for the visitors.
England 456 for 3 (Cook 182*, Morgan 44*) lead India 224 by 232 runs
