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Rain interruptions mar day 1 at Mohali |
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Written by Akshay
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Thursday, 09 March 2006 |
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 Andrew Flintoff's luck with the toss continued into his second test match as England captain. Once again he won an important toss and chose to bat first. The start of play was delayed due to rain and there was cloud cover even as play was slated to start but it wasn't such a big factor that the captain winning the toss would choose to give his faster bowlers a shot.
India has gone into this match with 5 bowlers, dropping Kaif, Laxman & Sreesanth being rendered unfit due to a flu. Piyush Chwala got a place in the 11 as the 3rd spinner & Yuvraj is back into the side after injury. More responsibilty has been put on the shoulders of the top order.
Rahul Dravid soon realised that there wasn't much in the pitch for the faster bowlers as Pathan and debutant Munaf Patel failed to get any purchase off the wicket or in the air. Dravid quickly brought on Harbhajan from Munaf's end as the english batsmen threatened to get well set. Harbhajan bowled a decent line and length and got decent response, considering it was a first day pitch with the new ball in his hand. Pathan though was kept on from the other end. And he justified that decision by picking up Andrew Strauss, getting him to go after a wide one, only to knick it to Dhoni, who took a good low catch. The Indians seemed to have worked out a plan against Strauss as Pathan kept pegging away outside the off stump and eventually got Strauss to nick one. The English batsmen seemed to have taken runs for granted on this pitch as they were slashing at wide ones and playing loose shots. Pathan then worked on the other opener, Alistair Cook , by bowling balls that were shaping away from him for a few deliveries and then getting one to slide into the left hander trapping him plumb in front of middle stump. The 2 wickets Pathan got were a case of mind over matter as there seemed to be nothing in the wicket but Pathan seems to be quickly learning to pick up wickets on flat tracks. Piyush Chawla got one over before lunch in which he did'nt try anything, just made sure that he landed the balls in the right place, understandable from a 17 year old debutant. Eng went to lunch 56/2.
Ian Bell and Kevin Pieterson played postively after lunch and Pieterson in particular went after the bowling. He slog-swept Chawla for a couple of boundaries and a big six. Pieterson seems special in his ability to play the ball on it's length. He picks up the length of the ball very quickly, thus can play the sweep shot against spinners in front of square. The debutant after bowling a few overs made way for the veteran, Anil Kumble. Kumble quickly settled down to a good line and length. Just as Bell and Pieterson seemed to be building a big partnership, Kumble deceived Bell with a googly, getting him bowled. The light faded at this point and play was stopped. Play was further delayed due to intermittent showers and the covers were on for a while. Thankfully Play was possible after a stoppage of more than an hour. As play resumed Pieterson dominated proceedings, while Collingwood got off to a slow start. Pieterson got to his second fifty of the series hitting 10 boundaries and a six. Munaf Patel, coming back for a new spell sruck an important blow as he got Pietterson caught and bowled. He was getting the ball to reverse a bit and Pieterson could'nt control one of his drives landing the ball in Munaf's hands, who gratefully held on to pick his first test wicket. Flintoff joined Collingwood in the middle, but play did not last for too long after that as conditions got pretty dark. England ended the day at 164/4. India would be pretty happy with their efforts on the day as they got 4 crucial wickets on a decent batting track.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 12 March 2006 )
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