England Concede Ground Early

India struck vital blows at regular intervals to gain early advantage in the first Test against a depleted England who paid a heavy price for the lack of application by their top batsmen.

The visitors proved that that they were no pushovers in sub-continental conditions but most of the batsmen were guilty of throwing away their wickets after gettingstarts which left them at a shaky 246 for seven at close on the opening day.

Debutant Alastair Cook (60) and Paul Collingwood (53 batting) hit half centuries but England's decision to bat first on a good batting track at the VCA stadium did not fetch them the desired results.

Paceman S Sreesanth made a memorable debut by snapping up two wickets while Irfan Pathan claimed three wickets to wreck the English batting line-up which was badly hit by the absence of established players like captain Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick.

Collingwood played sensibly to hold one end up and had Matthew Hoggard for company at stumps on a day which saw runs come at a fairly slow pace.

England started off well but only to lose way against some determined Indian bowling.

Cook showed good temperament in making 60 in 206 minutes with seven fours and also put on 56 runs for the first wicket with Andrew Strauss.

The other notable stand for the day was that of 67 between stand-in captain Andrew Flintoff, who made an impressive 43 in 70 balls with six fours, and Collingwood who batted sedately to make his third half-century and remain unbeaten at stumps.Collingwood had faced 145 balls so far and hit seven fours and a six.

Sreesanth bowled with a lot of enthusiasm and determination and got rid ofStrauss (28) and Kevin Pietersen (15).

Seasoned campaigners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh put the brakes on the England scoring besides getting among wickets.

Pathan came back strongly after a disappointing pre-lunch spell and dismissed Cook who faced 160 balls before playing a rash shot to be clean bowled. The batsman tried to drive a ball pitched outside and was bowled as it came in a bit.

But, the tall youngster showed good temperament in his first innings at the highest level of the game that must have pleased his beleaguered teammates.

England, 89 for two at lunch, could add only 68 runs in 30 overs while losing two wickets in the second session, an indication of the home team's control over the proceedings.

In the morning the visitors had started their innings on a confident note when Strauss and the 21-year-old Cook, who showed no nerves after having flown in asan emergency replacement before the match, batted with great poise.

But once Sreesanth had Strauss caught brilliantly by VVS Laxman at second slip, England started struggling against the Indian attack on the benign wicket.

Strauss faced 64 balls and hit five fours in his 71-minute essay.

Ten minutes before the lunch break Bell, not looking too confident against Harbhajan, jabbed at a wrong one from the bowler and was caught superbly by captain Rahul Dravid at slip.

It was the first wicket for Harbhajan in more than two months after his wicket-less stint while giving away 355 runs in two Tests against Pakistan.

Pietersen, after being dropped by Laxman at second slip off Sreesanth off the first ball of his third spell, succumbed to the same bowler four balls later in the second session.

It was a long hop that fetched the Kerala youngster his second wicket of his career as Pietersen under-edged a pull shot and the ball crashed into the leg stump.

Cook, who completed his maiden Test half century with a single to mid-wicket off 113 balls, and Pietersen carried the score from 89 for two at lunch to 110 when Cook departed.

Cook's knock contained six fours and he was hardly in any trouble even against the renowned Indian spin duo ofKumble, who strayed down the leg side before coming round the wicket, andHarbhajan.

Cook had put on 26 runs for the fourth wicket with Collingwood and looked good when he tried an ambitious drive against Pathan, back for a new spell replacing Sreesanth whose second spell was an impressive 4-1-7-1, and was bowled.

Collingwood and Flintoff then eschewed all risk and batted cautiously to put on 21 runs without being separated before tea.

Flintoff became aggressive in the last session and smacked five fours off Sreesanth to force him off the attack. He smashed Kumble over the bowler's head for a four before the veteran leggie trapped him leg before with a flipper bowled from slightly wide of the stumps. It was the Bangalore ace's 495th wicket.

Pathan then came back to trap Geraint Jones (14) leg before and bowled Ian Blackwell off the under edge in the space of six overs as England slid from 225 for five to 244 for 7.

Dravid did not take the new ball and preferred to use Pathan with the old one and he succeeded in reverse-swinging it to get among the wickets.

PTI