By Abhishek Roy, IANS,
New Delhi : England recovered from a poor start to post a modest 237 all out in 48.2 overs in the second One-day International against India at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Monday.
Kevin Pietersen (46) and Jonathan Trott (34) helped England recover from a disastrous start after Indian pacers removed openers Craig Kieswetter and captain Alastair Cook in successive overs without any score on the board.
Pietersen was also involved in a crucial 73-run stand for the fourth-wicket with Ravi Bopara (36) to bring stability to the innings. Jonny Bairstow (35) and Samit Patel (42) then added 86 runs for the sixth wicket that took England towards a respectable total.
The England batsmen failed to get the measure of the track and despite getting starts, none of them could convert them into big scores.
Medium pacer R. Vinay Kumar was the pick of the bowlers, giving a great start to the innings and then wiping off the tail to finish with figures of four for 30. Umesh Yadav bagged two for 50 while Praveen Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja picked up a wicket each.
Virat Kohli went wicketless but did a great job in containing the English batsmen with his military medium pace. He gave away just seven runs in his first spell of three overs.
Deciding to bat first, England soon found themselves on the back foot as India’s opening bowlers Praveen and Vinay Kumar extracted some early swing from the track, giving the hosts a good start.
Praveen got some extravagant swing off his first two balls and tempted Cook to cut the fourth and was picked out by Jadeja at point. The England captain couldn’t believe the poor shot and threw his hand up in despair. Vinay Kumar gave the second breakthrough in the next over as Kieswetter edged one tamely to local boy Kohli.
Trott, back at the No.3 spot, was in fluent touch and came down hard on Praveen with three back-to-back boundaries while Pietersen added the fourth as 17 runs came off the fifth over. Both Trott and Pietersen didn’t take any chance, relying on the singles, while the odd boundaries kept flowing in their 48-run stand for the third wicket.
Just when England’s fight-back was looking dangerous, Trott gifted his wicket, edging straight to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, despite having struck two crisply timed fours earlier in the same over.
Pietersen and Bopara were watchful in their approach and though 12 runs came off from the first over of the bowling Powerplay, England managed just 27 runs from the five overs of fielding restrictions.
No sooner the restrictions were over, Pietersen launched himself into Ravindra Jadeja hitting the left-arm spinner for two straight sixes. The former England captain, however, suffered a tame dismissal after he feathered a teaser off Yadav to Dhoni behind the wicket. Pietersen had doubts whether the ball was collected cleanly by Dhoni but TV replays showed otherwise. In between, Bopara was trapped leg-before by Ashwin.
Patel and Bairstow scored briskly during their partnership. Patel was trapped leg-before by Yadav while Jadeja struck in the next over to get rid off Bairstow, caught at boundary by Kohli.