Nagpur: India’s bowlers let England off the hook and allowed the visitors to recover from a difficult position as they reached 199 for five at stumps on the opening day to leave the crucial fourth and final cricket Test evenly poised here on Thursday.
The home team had England in a real spot at 139 for five soon after tea but failed to seize the initiative as debutant Joe Root and the experienced Matt Prior batted for nearly 30 overs to add 60 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket.
The new-look Indian bowling attack had kept the high-flying England batsmen on a tight leash and made them struggle for every run in the first two sessions before Prior batting on 34 and Root undefeated on 31 added valuable runs together.
Kevin Pietersen was the top-scorer for England with an innings of 73 while debutant Ravindra Jadeja got two wickets for 34 runs having bowled 25 overs.
England captain Alastair Cook won the toss for the first time and the visitors were rocked back by twin strikes within the first hour by Ishant Sharma but recovered briefly to get past the 100-run mark.
However, they got bogged down by the loss of three more wickets – two of which were claimed by debutant Jadeja and the other by comeback man Piyush Chawla – playing his first Test in four years – before staging their second recovery of the day.
The sixth wicket pair’s partnership has lasted five minutes under two hours.
Root is in the side in place of Samit Patel, while England have also brought in Tim Bresnan as replacement for the injured Steven Finn.
India, meanwhile, have dropped Zaheer Khan for Sharma, who is the lone paceman in a bowling attack that boasts of four spinners.
Jadeja is in the side in place of the dropped Yuvraj Singh. (PTI)
