London: An insipid Indian bowling lineup had yet another torrid day as England reached 75 for no loss on the opening day of the fourth and final cricket test before persistent rain brought a premature end to the proceedings here on Thursday.
Only 26 overs could be bowled on the opening day before heavens opened up at the Oval during the lunch break and after an inspection at 4.38pm (local time), the umpires decided to call off the day’s play.
Earlier, opting to bat, openers Alastair Cook (34) and Andrew Strauss (38) batted comfortably and had no problems in dealing with the Indian pace trio — which included Rudra Pratap Singh brought in place of injured Praveen Kumar — as England reached 75 for no loss at lunch.
From the moment RP Singh sent a wide delivery down the leg stump which almost bounced twice, Indians never backed themselves to do any worthwhile damage to the hosts’ formidable batting.
Both Cook and Strauss began with boundaries down to the third man region and generally played without any alarm till the second hour when a sharp Ishant Sharma bouncer nearly took England skipper’s head off.
Strauss was on 24, England 48 for no loss, when Sharma dug one in which got Strauss in a tangle and hit him smack on the peak of his helmet, taking a piece off it. An inch below and Strauss could have ended up with a serious blow on his face.
But for this solitary moment of superiority, there wasn’t any genuine moment of shout emerging from the Indians. England openers, for most part of the session, accumulated their runs in ones and twos and only nine fours were hit in the first session. Strauss hit five fours, while Cook, who had scored a double century in the third Test against India at Edgbaston, cracked four boundaries in the morning session
Indians largely stuck to its medium-pacers in the first session but they didn’t have the quality to make use of overcast conditions. (PTI)
