 The Indians were left struggling at the end of the second day of the only tour
game that they play before the start of the first Test match against England.
Chasing a total of 425 that Somerset had put up, the Indians were eight wickets
down for 138 and with not too much hope left out of the game.
It has been a poor two days of cricket for the Indian team, where both, their
bowling and their batting has struggled to make an impact. The Indians have not
got a thing right in the game, except probably for the fact that they now know
who their number six batsman would be in the first Test match against England.
If there was a doubt, that is!
India lost the toss on the first day and from there on, it was all downhill
for the side. They first allowed the Somerset openers, Andrew Strauss
and Arul Suppiah to get away to a good start. Strauss was in such good form
that it was not funny as he punished the Indian bowlers for 16 fours in his
innings of 78. Interestingly, the non-striker Suppiah, was a mere spectator,
as by the time Strauss was dismissed for 78, the Somerset side had scored only
101!
Suppiah joined the fun later, scoring a century and went on to notch a 150 as
well. The Indian grief did not end there as the likes of Nick Compton and Chris
Jones also got to their half centuries as the Indians were left chasing leather.
The Somerset side finally declared at 425/3, a huge score by the looks of things.
When the Indians batted, it seemed like they were in a mood to give back in
the same coin. Gautam Gambhir began with five boundaries in his innings
of 21, but once he was dismissed, the rest of the side collapsed. Not a single
batsman got even close to 30, even as the rest of the side fell to the bowling
of Charl Willoughby. Willoughby grabbed a five-wicket haul as the Indians failed
to negotiate the swing and bounce and fell away.
Even Sachin Tendulkar, who was returning to cricket after having taken
a break from the sport for a month and a half scored only 26 and for most part
of the innings was struggling to get going.
At the end of the day, the Indians were 138 for eight and it looked like Somerset
could enforce the follow-on.
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