A century from opener Andrew Strauss and an unbeaten 50 by Test rookie Owais Shah helped a depleted England reach a solid 272 for three on the first day of the third and final cricket Test against India.
Strauss batted with authority as he drove, pulled and swept the Indian bowlers fluently after Indian skipper Rahul Dravid asked England to bat first after winning the toss.
Skipper Andrew Flintoff was 17 not out and Paul Collingwood was unbeaten on 11 at stumps.
The Indian bowlers salvaged some pride by claiming two wickets in the last 40 minutes on a flat track.
The England innings was built around Strauss’ superb knock. He gave one chance when he was on 92 when he cut offspinner Harbhajan Singh through the slips, but Dravid failed to hold on to the catch.
Strauss reached his century two balls later by hitting Singh for a mid-wicket boundary.
Singh, who was punished by both Strauss and Shah, finally got his reward. Strauss edged the off-spinner to wicket-keeper Mahendra Dhoni. His 128 was studded with one six and 17 boundaries.
Making his test debut, Shah opened his campaign aggressively, hitting Singh to point for a boundary. He later sent pace bowler Irfan Pathan out of the attack by clobbering three boundaries in one over after lunch.
Shah reached his 50 with a cover drive off Singh for his ninth boundary just before tea break. But he retired hurt and didn’t come out to bat in the last session because of cramps in his hands, said Andrew Walpole, England’s media relations manager.
He is expected to be fit to bat on Sunday.
Kevin Pietersen took his place and batted with aplomb in his brief knock of 39 runs.
Strauss joined Shah for a 106-run, second-wicket partnership, before putting on 72 runs with Pietersen.
Pietersen, who appeared to be settling down for a big score, was caught behind by Mahendra Dhoni off pace bowler Shantakumaran Sreesanath for 39 runs.
Playing his 100th test, Dravid expected his bowlers to exploit the bouncy track at the Wankhede Stadium.
With the wicket lacking pace, India’s bowlers failed to trouble the visitors who must win this match to level the three-Test series. India won the second Test at Mohali earlier this week by nine wickets after the drawn first test at Nagpur.
In the first hour of play, Strauss and Bell batted cautiously and took the score to 50 off 18,2 overs.
India’s first breakthrough came two runs later when Bell hit pace bowler Sreesanth to Singh at point. His 18 runs included two fours.
India made one change from the team that won the second Test at Mohali with Sreesanth replacing leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.
England made three changes and brought in James Anderson, Shaun Udal and Shah in place of Stephen Harmison, Liam Plunkett and Alastair Cook.
Fast bowler Stephen Harmison was ruled out with an injured shin and opener Cook was suffering from gastroenteritis. – Sapa-AP