A late surge from Stuart Broad, who was also the top scorer, helped England go past the 200 mark on the first day of the second Test against India at Trent Bridge.
The Indian medium pacers had England on the ropes at one stage, but a brilliant counter attack by Broad and Graeme Swann helped England get past a tough phase and get to a creditable score of 221. India in reply were on 24/1 at stumps.
India controlled the first two sessions of the day. Sreedharan Sreesanth, who came in for the injured Zaheer Khan, bowled brilliantly. He picked up three wickets and removed the important wickets of Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior with beautiful away going deliveries. Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar also picked up three wickets each and kept the England top order under tight control.
Ishant got the breakthrough early on when he trapped Alastair Cook in front. The replays showed that the ball would have gone above the stumps but it was justice for Ishant as Cook had survived a close shout early on. Sreesanth then picked up the wicket of Trott and England were in trouble. Andrew Strauss then survived the first session along with Pietersen.
It was the second session in which India was rampant. They picked up six wickets after lunch and were well and truly top of England. Pietersen went after edging an away swinger and Strauss fell in the trap that Praveen had created for him.
He went for a wide ball but only managed to edge one to the slips. Eoin Morgan’s poor series continued as he caught plumb in front in the same over. Prior went off a peach of a delivery from Sreesanth.
Bell managed to string a small partnership with Tim Bresnan but Ishant Sharma came back to break the partnership. England went to tea at a precarious 124/8 and it was after tea that India lost the plot. Broad and Swann counterattacked immediately after tea and that unsettled the Indian bowlers.
The breakthrough finally came when a ball from Praveen kicked up from length to take the glove of Swann and lob up in the air. It also kept Swann from fielding when the Indian innings started as he had to rush to the hospital for an X ray.
Abhinav Mukund was out first ball trying to push a swinging ball from Anderson. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman then managed to hang on till the end of the day.