Rudra Pratap Singh made his Lord's debut memorable by claiming his career-first
five-wicket haul but Kevin Pietersen's timely century helped England set
India a daunting target of 380 in the first cricket Test here today.
Pietersen hit an attacking 134, his first hundred against India,
and shared a 119-run stand for the sixth wicket with wicketkeeper-batsman Matt
Prior (42) to help England post 282 in their second innings on the fourth
day.
RP Singh took 5 for 59, dismissing last man Monty Panesar
leg before as England was all out at the stroke of tea.
Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan returned with 4 for 79.
Starting the day at his overnight 15 not out, Pietersen batted confidently
and fluently to make light work of the Indian bowling before being the ninth
man to be dismissed.
His memorable knock took him 293 minutes. He faced 213 balls and hit 14 blazing
fours and one towering six.
Overall, it was Pietersen's 9th Test hundred, and 3rd at Lord's,
and it put the hosts in a commanding position after being reduced to 132 for
5 in the first hour.
England scored 298 in the first innings before knocking down
India for 201.
India has successfully chased a target of over 300 runs only
once in their entire Test history when they scored 406 for 4 against the West
Indies in 1975-76 at Port of Spain.
India's previous best fourth innings chase was 264 for 3 against
Sri Lanka at Kandy in 2001-2002.
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