India lose Sehwag early, trail England by 298 runs (Tea Report)

Nagpur, Dec 14 (IANS) Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla bagged four wickets to wrap up England’s first innings for 330 runs while India lost opening batsman Virender Sehwag early to reach 32 for one at tea on the second day of the final cricket Test at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium, Jamtha, Friday.

Gautam Gambhir was batting on 17 and Cheteshwar Pujara 15 as India still trail by 298 runs.

India batted for 45 minutes after wrapping up the England innings. The visitiors reached a competitive total thanks to half-centuries by Joe Root (73), Matt Prior (57) and Graeme Swann (56).

The stars couldn’t have been worse for India as they lost Sehwag for a duck in the third ball of the day. James Anderson produced an excellent inswinger that blew away Sehwag’s middle stump.

Then it was a mix of aggression and caution by Gambhir and Pujara as India scored 32 runs before tea.

Earlier, England who were at 277 for seven before the start of the session, had Swann to thank for crossing the 300-mark. The off-spinner struck 56 off 91 balls which included six fours and two sixes.

Leg-spinner Chawla produced a brilliant spell of leg bowling, first removing debutant Root, who had been a thorn in India’s flesh scoring 73 off 188 balls.

Swann in his zeal to score quick runs tried one too many things and was trapped leg before in front of the stumps by the diminutive spinner.

Anderson (4) was the last wicket to fall for the visitors, lobbing an easy catch to the short-leg fielder.

England scored slowly in the morning after resuming at 199 for five. But Root and Prior with their 103-run stand for the sixth wicket took the English to a position of strength.

Root and Prior didn’t look in a hurry even as runs were flowing slowly on a difficult track.

Prior got to his 24th Test half-century in style by cutting a shorter ball from Pragyan Ojha through cover-point for four. Root also got to his maiden half-century soon off Ravichandran Ashwin and was well applauded by the crowd and the England dressing room.

Ashwin, however, struck in his next over to remove the dangerous looking Prior, who was bowled by a delivery that didn’t turn.

Fast bowler Ishant Sharma struck next to get rid of Tim Bresnan, who didn’t trouble the scorers.

IANS 2012-12-14 15:02:05