Zaheer Khan took three wickets as India reduced England to 169 for seven at stumps on the first day of the second Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Friday.
India’s performance was all the more impressive as all the wickets fell in just two sessions after a wet outfield meant there was no play before lunch.
Left-arm quick Khan, the second-most-successful bowler in English first-class cricket last year with 78 wickets for Worcestershire, ended the day with three for 50 in 16 overs after troubling England with his late swing.
At stumps, Chris Tremlett, dropped on four, was 16 not out and Ryan Sidebottom nought not out after all of England’s recognised batsmen had gone with opener Alastair Cook’s 43 the top score.
”It was disappointing to get out,” said Cook. ”It was a tough day. If we had won the toss, we would have bowled, but we lost too many wickets for our liking. The ball swung and nipped. The pitch was more ideal for bowling than batting.”
Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, India’s fastest bowler, had miserly figures of one for 16 in 12 overs and medium-pacer Sourav Ganguly one for 11 in eight.
”We were very lucky to win the toss because the conditions were ideal for bowling,” said India batsman VVS Laxman. ”Winning the toss is one thing, but the way the bowlers bowled was commendable.”
Laxman said Khan was a better bowler after his time in county cricket. ”Over the last year he has been bowling really well. His stint with Worcestershire has really helped him. He’s become more mature and he’s putting a lot of effort into his bowling.”
England, who had lost the toss, resumed after tea on 94 for three with Cook 35 not out and Paul Collingwood 25 not out.
India then restricted England to just seven runs off the bat in the first nine overs after the interval, with the bowlers unafraid to alter their angle of attack by going round the wicket.
Collingwood, trying to up the tempo, was bowled off the inside edge by Sreesanth for 28 to end a fourth-wicket stand worth 54.
Ganguly, fit after a back strain, was a good choice to be bowling in the swing-friendly conditions. The former captain reduced England to 109 for five when he brought one back into Cook’s pads to have the left-hander lbw.
”It was very important to block runs at one end and Sourav did a tremendous job,” Laxman added.
Both Ian Bell and Matt Prior were now in on nought with just the bowlers to come in after them.
Leg-spinner Anil Kumble then got in on the act, with Prior edging a drive off a well pitched-up delivery to India captain Rahul Dravid at slip.
Tremlett, who’d made a pair on debut in the drawn first Test at Lord’s, should have been out for four but first slip Sachin Tendulkar, who had held two catches earlier in the day, dropped the routine chance off Khan.
But Khan had his third wicket when Bell, aiming across an inswinger, was lbw for 31.
It was a good toss for India to win, on a green-tinged pitch, after the ground had saturated by rain for several days. Dravid’s decision to field first was rewarded as early as the third over when Andrew Strauss — without a Test hundred since August — drove without moving his feet at Khan’s outswinger and was caught by Tendulkar at first slip.
Then Khan, four balls after hitting Vaughan on the helmet, dismissed the England captain for nine. Bowling from around the wicket, he lured Vaughan into fending outside off-stump with Tendulkar holding the catch to give the 28-year-old Khan his 150th wicket in his 49th Test.
Kevin Pietersen, fresh from a hundred at Lord’s whose top score in a Trent Bridge Test is 45, was lbw to RP Singh, India’s other left-arm quick, for 13 and England were struggling at 47 for three.
Both sides were unchanged from the teams that played at Lord’s, in the first of this three-Test series, where India clung on with one wicket standing before bad light and rain ended the match. — Sapa-AFP