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Cricket - First test, Day one.

Strauss scored 96 as England dominate against India.....

Strauss back in the runs after Karthik blunder

19th July 2007
Daily Mail

Current score

First day of the First Test, England VS India

1st Innings - England 268/4

England: Strauss, Cook, Vaughan, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bell, Prior, Tremlett, Sidebottom, Panesar, Anderson

India: Jaffer, Karthik, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman, Dhoni, Kumble, Zaheer, RP Singh, Santh

Let off: Andrew Strauss

Andrew Strauss fell victim to his own desire to end his long wait for a century as India fought back in the final session to prevent England taking a commanding position in the opening npower Test.

The Middlesex left-hander has endured a miserable run of form since scoring a captain's century to help England secure a victory over Pakistan at Headingley 11 months ago.

Since then he has battled hard, but has never added to his tally of 10 Test centuries which has put his place in England's line-up, which he has held for the last three years, under threat for the first time in his career.

Facing an India bowling line-up lacking the know-how to make best use of the conditions, Strauss was given an ideal opportunity to end that run and came within four runs of doing just that as England reached 268 for four at the end of a first day restricted to 80.3 overs by bad light.

But just as his first century in 20 Test innings came into view, Strauss had a sudden rush of blood to the head and charged leg-spinner Anil Kumble which resulted in disastrous consequences.

Aiming to play the big shot which would secure his century, Strauss came down the wicket to Kumble who used the experience which has earned him 552 previous Test wickets by tossing it wider and forcing England's opener to stretch and edge it to Rahul Dravid at slip.

Strauss concealed his disappointment well but as he trooped back to the dressing room, he will have known that a fourth Lord's Test century had slipped his grasp even if it was only his third half-century in his last 18 Test innings.

He could also console himself with the knowledge he had played a major part in helping England towards a strong position having entered the Test with serious concerns about the make-up of their attack.

Already deprived of Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff through injury, England also lost Matthew Hoggard after he failed to recover from a back spasm and were forced to field an inexperienced attack with only 37 Test appearances between them, including debutant Chris Tremlett.

All concerns about their ability to make inroads into India's formidable batting line-up were quickly dispelled with England taking advantage of wayward early bowling after winning the toss and deciding to bat.

Strauss and Essex opener Alastair Cook raced to 40 without loss in only five overs and 76 without loss in the first hour with left-armer Zaheer Khan and Shantha Sreesanth both struggling to control the new ball swing.

India never looked like making a breakthrough during that first hour, but captain Dravid turned to the medium pace swing of Sourav Ganguly for the first over after drinks and immediately enjoyed some success.

Dolly drop: India's Karthik

Essex opener Cook has been the dominant force in the 76-run opening stand from the moment he got off the mark by turning Sreesanth off his hips for four from the first ball he had faced.

But the bowling change clearly disrupted Cook's rhythm and with Ganguly's fourth ball he was given lbw as he pushed half-forward while he also had a strong appeal rejected against Vaughan two balls later.

Having survived that shaky start, however, Vaughan became increasingly confident and guided Strauss through his determined battle towards three figures.

Strauss had one reprieve when he drove Sreesanth straight to Dinesh Karthik, the reserve wicketkeeper playing in the side for his batting, at point who missed a regulation chance in the over before lunch.

Having survived that, though, Strauss became increasingly fluent and looked more like the player who first burst into the England side with a century on his debut at Lord's against New Zealand.

Just as the century came into his sights, however, Strauss' judgement failed him and allowed Kumble to add to his already prolific haul of Test victims.

Strauss would have been particularly upset to see England take an offer of bad light just half an hour later and when they returned 53 minutes later only lasted a few overs before going off again.

Just as play seemed certain to be called off for the day, England returned again and suffered costly consequences by losing two wickets for three runs in nine balls before play was finally halted by the light for the last time.

Vaughan fell chasing a wide delivery from seamer Rudra Pratap Singh which he edged behind after over four hours of defiance for his 79 and in the next over Paul Collingwood suffered his first ever Test duck after Kumble won an lbw decision against him.

Nightwatchman Ryan Sidebottom wisely took an offer of bad light four overs later to prevent India making further inroads into England's line-up and undermining the impressive foundations they had built earlier in the day.

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