Mumbai: England skipper Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen’s defiant unbeaten stand of 110 runs put the visitors in the drivers’ seat at stumps on Day Two of the second Test against India at the Wankhede stadium here on Saturday.
Cook continued on his brilliant batting form from the first Test at Ahmedabad and was batting on 87 while Pietersen’s nightmares of left-arm-spin seems to have faded as he played a free-flowing unbeaten innings of 62 at stumps.
The visitors started the day on a positive note, trying to wipe out the tail as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, promising youngster Cheteswar Pujara continued on with his brilliant display of defence and strokeplay and played the sheet anchor’s role to take India’s score past the 300-run mark, which almost looked an impossible task on Friday with five wickets down at 119.
Pujara and overnight batsman Ravichandran Ashwin started off well to put on a 111-run stand before left-arm-spinner Monty Panesar, who picked four wickets on Day One trapped Ashwin LBW on 68.
Pujara and Harbhajan continued to frustrate the visitors with a 35-run stand to take India past the 300-run mark. Bhajji was soon trapped leg before by England’s frontline spinner Graeme Swann to claim his second wicket of the innings.
Swann too sent Pujara in his next over, getting the right-hander out stumped for a masterful 135 off 350 balls. It was the first time Pujara was dismissed in this series.
Pacer Zaheer Khan provided the late fireworks with a four and a six off Panesar but the innings folded in the next over as he was given out for a ‘bad catch’ off Swann.
The total would have given India much confidence as they fought back from a precarious position at 169/6 to get to in excess of 327.
With the pitch taking turn and three spinners in their ranks, India looked set to assert their dominance yet again. But it was not a cakewalk for the home side for the first 30 overs atleast as Cook and Nick Compton put on a 66-run opening stand.
Zaheer, Pragyan Ojha and Ashwin all toiled hard but with the new ball skidding the spinners struggled to make an instant impact.
England openers also adopted a more attacking approach consistently stepping out to Ojha and hitting in the air. They helped the team inch towards safety just ahead of the tea break but were undone by Ojha’s left-arm spin.
The left armer benefited by the pressure exerted by Ashwin and Harbhajan as he induced an edge from Compton that Virender Sehwag gobbled up easily.
There was more success for India in Ojha’s next over as he deceived Jonathan Trott with the flight and trapped him plumb in front for a duck. (UNI)