It was fast turning out to be a long day in office for the Indians as Andrew Strauss
and Michael Vaughann milked their listless bowling to help
England reach a strong 197 for 1 at tea on the first day of the first cricket
Test at Lord's here today.
At the break, Strauss was batting on 84 while skipper Vaughan
was batting on 57, the pair having so far added 121 runs for their second wicket
partnership.
Alastair Cook was the lone England batsman to be dismissed
in the day when he fell lbw to Sourav Ganguly for 36 in the first session.
Strauss, who was dropped by Dinesh Karthik off Sreesanth
just before lunch when on 43, put on 76 runs for the first wicket with Cook
in just 14.4 overs as England took charge after electing to first on a good
batting surface.
Both Vaughan and Strauss milked the bowling in the afternoon
session with some sparkling shots.
The left-handed Strauss has so far faced 163 balls and struck
14 fours while his captain has consumed 142 balls and hit nine shots to the
fence.
If the Indian pacers were guilty of erring in their line all
day, Sreesanth and RP Singh actually bowled wides in the afternoon giving a
tough time to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind stumps.
|