Ian Bell Scores 159 As Indian Bowling Crumbles Again

The third day of the second Test match between India and England at Trent Bridge saw the hosts take full control of the game, as they out-batted the tourists with some sparkling display. By the time the third day had ended, the English side was 374 runs ahead with four second innings wickets standing.

Resuming on their overnight score of 24 for one, England lost Andrew Strauss early enough off the bowling of S Sreesanth, but after that, it was a hard grind for the Indians. Ian Bell was joined by Kevin Pietersen and rather surprisingly, it was the former who managed to outscore the more aggressive latter.

Bell used the vacant third-man region to his advantage and dabbed many of the strokes down there for boundaries. Pietersen, who was slow off his blocks got to his half-century much after Bell had got his, as England benefitted from a 162-run stand for the third wicket.

Pietersen was consumed by Sreesanth, but not before he had scored 63 and laid a fine foundation for the English batting to exploit. Eoin Morgan, who had had a couple of ducks against his name before this innings, was immediately positive against the flailing Indian attack as Bell reached his first ever Test century at the number three position.

The duo was involved in another century-run stand, and by the time Bell was finally sent back by Yuvraj Singh, England had crushed any hopes that the demoralised Indian side had had. Bell made 159. Morgan’s 70 and the injured Jonathon Trott’s innings was soon ended by the new ball from Praveen Kumar but the chances of restricting the English lead to 300 were busted by Matt Prior’s chanceless innings of 64 that came off only 55 balls.

In a seventh wicket stand of 102 runs, Prior and Tim Bresnan slammed home the advantage as the wearing Indian bowling bore the brunt of the Harbhajan Singh injury. Harbhajan bowled only nine overs in innings and conceded 47 before being hit by a stomach injury.

By the time the play had ended on the third day, England were 441 for six and with two full days to go, it is going to be a rather steep climb for the Indian team.

Bell had a moment of reprieve when after being run-out at the stroke of tea, the appeal was withdrawn by the Indian captain MS Dhoni. Click here for the Ian Bell run-out video