By IANS,
London : England ambled to 217/3 at lunch on the second day of the first cricket Test at Lord’s here Friday after India were left a bowler short with Zaheer Khan being diagonsed with a hamstring strain.
England, resuming at 127/2, lost Jonathan Trott (70) to Praveen Kumar before Kevin Pietersen (71) and Ian Bell (28) guided the England innings.
Pietersen was lucky to escape when Rahul Dravid, for the third time in two days, failed to hold onto a low catch at leg slip off Praveen. It was smart move by Mahendra Singh Dhoni to place a leg slip for Pietersen, who made most of his runs on leg side moving across to the stumps.
Pietersen, who was batting at overnight 22, grew in confidence and stroked seven fours.
India’s pace spearhead Zaheer, who hobbled out of the field on the opening day Thursday with a hamstring strain, was ruled out of the rest of England’s first innings. However he is expected to bowl in the second innings.
In the absence of Zaheer, who had taken both the wickets Thursday, the Indian attack was reduced to just three bowlers and lacked sharpness.
Praveen bowled his heart out with longer spells but did not get much help from the other end.
Trott, after adding 12 runs to his overnight score, fell to Kumar’s swinging delivery.
Ishant Sharma failed to make much impact as he again bowled short off the good length and also erred in line.