Nagpur: Some fine bowling performance from Indian bowlers and some resilient batting from the England batsmen saw the visitors score 199/5 at stumps on day one of the fourth Test being played at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur here today.

Indian bowlers did really well to take five wickets on the pitch where the ball was not coming on the bat. England in the day scored at a little 2 runs per over in what was a slow day of Test cricket. Indian team were well ahead of the over-rate the entire rate and ended up bowling 97 overs in the day.

Earlier in the day, England captain Alastair Cook won the toss and decided to bat first on a pitch that was covered with cracks before the start.

England had two changes in their squad with Steven Finn and Samit Patel being replaced by Tim Bresnan and Joe Root.

India too had two changes, with Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh missing out their places to Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja.

Cook and Nick Compton have done well as an opening pair in the series but they failed in this match. Compton (3) was the first man to get out when he edged a rising delivery from Sharma and Dhoni completed an easy catch. Jonathan Trott got a lucky break when the umpire denied an appeal, with the replays showing that he was out.

But, Ishant got lucky in his next over when Cook (1) was adjudged leg before wicket when the ball was clearly missing the stumps.

Trott and Kevin Pietersen then played good cricket to put up an unbeaten stand of 45 runs to take England to lunch on 61/2.

The post lunch session saw the two not-out batsmen Jonathan Trott and Pietersen playing well. Together the two took the score past the 100 run-mark and Pietersen completing his half-century. But Trott soon got out shouldering arms to gift Ravindra Jadeja his first international wicket.

Ian Bell’s struggle continued as he looked extremely nervous in the middle and eventually got out to Piyush Chawla scoring one run from 28 deliveries that he faced. England finished the afternoon session at 133/4.  

Pietersen unbeaten on 68 started the evening session in style hitting the first delivery to the cover boundary. Indian bowlers continued bowling in good areas and were rewarded when Pietersen picked out Ojha standing at short mid-wicket of the bowling of Jadeja.

England at 139 for five were desperate for a good partnership and that’s exactly what they got as Root and Matt Prior held their ends together. Both batsmen dropped anchor and waited for bad deliveries. Together the two added 60 runs in 177 balls that they faced together.

Root (31*) and Prior (34*) will begin the proceedings for the visitors on day two.

Brief Score:

England: 199/5 in 97 overs (Pietersen 73, Trott 44, Ishant Sharma 2-32)   

By Indian Sports News Network

Tags:
alastair cook
kevin pietersen
matt prior
ms dhoni
piyush chawla
ravindra jadeja

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