Rain interrupted play towards the end of the second session on the first day of the first Test match between India and England at Lord’s but that was not before the home team had scraped through to 127 for the loss of a couple of wickets.
India V England 1st Test Day One: Rain Stops Play With England At 127/2
It could have been a lot worse for the home team had the Indians been able to hold their chances though. There were a couple of tough catches dropped apart from a missed run-out chance and with Jonathon Trott holding fort at the pitch with a stubborn half-century and Zaheer Khan having injured his hamstring, things looked bleak for India. Thankfully for them then, the weather grew even bleaker and stalled the run of play, giving the side some time to rethink their strategy.
India decided to field first after winning the toss, a decision probably borne out of the inexperience of one of their openers and the fact that the Lord’s pitch was never going to deteriorate enough to help their spinner. The going was slow for the English side, with only 19 runs coming off the first 11 overs.
Some of it was thanks to good bowling from the Zaheer and Praveen Kumar duo, who incidentally got enough swing from the pitch to make scoring difficult. And then, Zaheer trapped Alastair Cook, England’s best batsman from the Ashes, out lbw, to draw first blood.
This dismissal was sandwiched between a missed run-out chance of Strauss and a dropped catch of Trott at slips by the usually dependable Rahul Dravid. Later, in the second session, Zaheer got Trott to edge another one, but Dhoni’s half dive made it difficult for the Dravid and the chance was stuffed.
Strauss had come into the game with some poor form in the Tests against Sri Lanka, but had done a good job in the Somerset game. He did his best for the 82 balls he was at the crease, but a sharp bouncer from Zaheer had him surprised and he only managed to pull the ball to the fine-leg fielder.
The swinging conditions tested number four Kevin Pietersen through most of his stay at the wicket but when the rains did arrive, he had added an unbeaten 65 runs for the third wicket with Trott. And dare one may say, very invaluable 65 of them as well, given that batting seemed very difficult under the conditions.
If Zaheer Khan isn’t able to bowl again in this game because the injury turns out to be more serious than just a small cramp, India would be left with only three frontline bowlers. That is hardly an exciting situation to be in, on the first day of a very important series and India would be left playing catch up for most of the rest of the game.
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