Live: England vs India, 1st Test, Day 1 @ Lunch: Cautious start by England

Indian captain MS Dhoni might have felt very happy after winning the toss at the Lords under overcast conditions. Trying to use the bowling friendly environment, Dhoni rightly chose bowling first in the historical 2000th test. But at the lunch, it doesn’t seem that the Indian captain would be very happy with what he got after bowling 21 overs. England batsmen started cautiously and reached 43/1 with Strauss not out on 20 after batting for 69 balls. Only success for India was brought by experienced Zaheer Khan when he got the wicket of Alstair Cook who was adjudged LBW for 12 runs.

Zak celebrates after clearing Cook (AP Photo)

Earlier in the day, the rain caused half an hour delay in the start of the match. India decided to go into the match without Yuvraj Singh preferring Suresh Raina over the Man of the World Cup. On the other hand, England chose Stuart Broad over Bresnan.

After putting England to bat, India might have liked at least 2-3 wickets before the lunch using the overcast conditions. But to the utter dismay of the Indian fans, the English openers started cautiously and batted sensibly. the first 3 overs were maiden overs before Cook scored the first runs of the match. While Cook played some good strokes, Strauss was struggling against the swing of Zaheer and Praveen Kumar. Despite some good and effectve bowling, Indian bowlers weren’t very much successful in getting wickets except Zaheer who got Cook. Ishant was brought in to replace Zaheer but he also failed to give India any more breakthrough. Harbhajan created a chance in the very first delivery he bowled but Dravid dropped Trott on 8. Had Dravid taken that catch, it would have been his 400th international catch. Looking at Trott’s form, this catch may prove to be very costly for India.

Now that the sun is coming out and Strauss and Trott are looking solid, Indian bowlers may have to work harder to clear the English top order. England will try to score faster in the next session as they played slightly better than the Indian side.

Score @ Lunch:

England: 43/1 (21 overs)

J Trott		9* (21b)		Zaheer Khan	7- 3- 9- 1
A Strauss		20* (69b)