India vs. England Oval Test Live: Bell and Pietersen consolidate

Kevin Pietersen

India began the day brightly with the sun pounding on their backs without the slothfulness they had exhibited on Day 1. Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma bowled with intensity and purpose on a rather unresponsive Oval wicket. There was hardly any carry in the wicket seen on Day 1 unlike traditional Oval wickets. Dhoni made the right decision and threw the ball to Ishant Sharma who had impressed on Day 1 among other mundane performances.

Ishant Sharma probed the right regions and was duly rewarded with the precious wicket of Alastair Cook. The dismissal came in the very first over of the day to the joy of Indian fans. Cook found himself committed to a full length delivery and edged it into the hands of Virender Sehwag waiting at first slip. Sharma was unlucky not to have got more wickets in the session as he bowled with a lot of heart and patience. He kept beating the bat and ignited a faint contest with Kevin Pietersen as well.

England were continuing from 75/0 on Day 1and scored at 2 runs per over in the first session. Andrew Strauss played out half an hour on Day 2 but added only 2 more runs to his overnight score indicating the pressure that the Indian bowlers had applied. On the other end, Ian Bell seemed assertive inspite of the relentless attack. He made sure that he put the bad balls away. Sreesanth was bright in his first spell but was still vulnerable to bowling a few stray deliveries now and then.

Strauss’ dismissal was unlike the nature of his mall but steady innings. He had been leaving anything that was slightly outside his off stump from the outset but in that particular over that finally consumed him, he had tried two or three extravagant cover drives. Sreesanth was purposely mixing his outswingers with one that was sent full and wide just in order to tempt the batsman and the move worked.

Amit Mishra’s introduction to the attack was marked by an aggressively played shot by Pietersen which fetched him 4 valuable runs. Pietersen and Bell have knit together a partnership of 100 runs in almost no time post lunch. This has diminished India’s efforts of the first session and England look well set for another massive score. The weather is perfect for batting and if India’s don’t find a way to break through, they would be chasing the game like at Birmingham.