End of Day2
England: 457/3 (Bell 181*, Pietersen 175,) vs. India
Bell and Pietersen continue to torture India
England had already wrapped up the series 3-0 and if, for a moment, you thought there would be lack of focus and a slip-up in intensity in the dead rubber, you couldn’t have been more wrong! On another leather chasing day, the Indian bowlers put in a lackluster performance as Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen deflated India’s hopes with a mammoth 350 run stand as England piled up 457/3, 381 runs on the second day alone!
But the whole day was not England’s alone! The first session was an even competition with England managing to score only 50 runs and losing both their openers in the process. In fact it took only five balls for Ishant Sharma to strike when Cook uncharacteristically played a loose stroke to give Sehwag an easy catch at slip. Ishant was fired up and gave only his first spell figures read 6-3-7-1. Strauss struggled against both the pacers and finally was dismissed when he nicked Sreesanth to Dhoni to give India the upper hand at the end of the first hour’s play.
But what a false dawn that proved to be! RP Singh couldn’t continue the good work started by the pacers and Bell and Pietersen found easy pickings. Mishra was highly ineffective and after the batsmen had weathered the storm, they found the runs easy to come by. Bell was first to his fifty and Pietersen reached there soon. The bowlers and fielders dropped their shoulders as the batsmen continued to make merry!! Bell reached his second century of the series of 181 balls, the second fifty coming of only 71 and with the alarming lack of intensity from the bowlers; it was only a matter of holding your concentration.
Pietersen had to wait until first ball after lunch to reach his hundred and he almost threw it away immediately after top edging a pull. But Gambhir, who was backpedalling from mid-on couldn’t clutch on to the catch to add to India’s misery. Pietersen then took the attack to the opposition, treating Mishra to some special attention. Pietersen unleashed his whole array of strokes including a switch-hit while Bell continued to accumulate runs through the point region. Pietersen reached his 150 ahead of Bell and missed out on his second double hundred of the series when he offered a simple return catch to Raina on 175. Bell meanwhile continued his good work and finished unbeaten on 181, 19 adrift of what would be his first Test double.
Tags: 4th Test, Cricket, England, Ian Bell, India, Kevin Pietersen, Test Cricket
