Mohali: Rahul Dravid gave a glimpse of his ‘Wall’ stature as he cracked his gritty 54th Test fifty off 151 balls. The effort ensured that the second spell of the day was dominated by the home team as the Indian scorecard read 134/1 at tea time. India had clawed back into the game with the slow and steady approach as Gautam Gambhir scored a hard earned fifty before his counterpart at the other end. The effort also took the total past the 100 run-mark with Dravid too looking in some good touch.
Morning Session
The first session of play yielded good results for England. They managed to restrict India to 51 runs and picked up a crucial wicket of danger man Virender Sehwag as well. Stuart Broad claimed the prized scalp for a duck and justified his inclusion in the squad.
The duo of Dravid and Gambhir then took the mantle in their hands and threw caution to the winds, thereby not allowing further hiccups. Dravid finally broke one jinx in the session, he hit his first boundary in four innings. Toss
Indian skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first against England at Mohali. The other captain Kevin Pietersen rued the opportunity of losing the toss as the wicket would offer help to the bowlers in the first as well as the last innings of the game.
The start of the second and final Test match had been delayed due to bad light. An overnight fog persisted over the stadium and hence the umpires had to wait before the toss could commence.
England had made a change in their team composition by bringing in Stuart Broad in place of Steve Harmison. The move could have been made after the pitch inspection by the skipper as the presence of lots of cracks but with a hint of grass would mean that Broad would have a go at the batsmen in the scenario.
The first Test at Chennai ended on a high note for the home team as the batsmen made merry of the English bowling, winning by six wickets in the process. With a whitewash in the ODI series as well, England would be hoping to end the tour on a winning note and carry back some pride to their abode.
India (Playing XI): Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w/c), Amit Mishra, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma
England (Playing XI): Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen(c), Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Prior(w), Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Monty Panesar
this news published by www.apakistannews.com
