A green wicket greeted the India batsmen on day one of the 2nd Test at Lord's, but the visitors, led by Ajinkya Rahane, showed they can play against the moving ball after all, with England left to ponder on another golden chance dropped.
Where to Watch Live
The second day of the second Test at Lord's is set for a 11 am local time (3.30 pm, 6 am ET) start with live coverage on Star Sports HD1, Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 3 in India. The match can also be live streamed online in India HERE. The Test match will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports 2, with viewers also able to live stream the action HERE. US Viewers can catch the game on ESPN 3 or via the live streaming option HERE.
Following the lifeless wicket at Trent Bridge in the first Test, Lord's groundsman Mick Hunt overcompensated a little by leaving so much grass on the pitch that it was quite difficult to differentiate between the wicket and the rest of the ground on day one morning.
However, the England bowlers, with James Anderson raring to go after the events leading up to the second Test, failed to take full advantage after putting India into bat, bowling too wide and too short and with it allowing the top order batsmen to let go of the majority of the deliveries.
The second session, was England's though, with the hosts taking four wicket for 67 runs, but the final two hours was all India as Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar put on a wonderful 90-run to take India to 290 for nine at the close of play.
"We put ourselves in a great position to have them out for 220. It's a little bit frustrating that they got up to 290 but, if you look at the bigger picture, we are taking the poles of their batsman at the top of the order," England all-rounder Ben Stokes told ECB's official website. "We just need to work a way of getting their tail out."
England were on course to dismiss India for a score well below 200 at one point, but now they will have to go into Day 2 of the second Test at Lord's hoping for that final wicket to fall as quickly as possible, before weathering out the India bowling storm with the new ball, and then going on to make a big first innings score.
"Hopefully we can take this last wicket sooner rather than later and then the batsmen can really pile it on," Stokes added. "It's one of those wickets where it is a struggle to start with, but once you get in you get the pace of the pitch and you can really go big as Rahane showed."
For India, Day 2 will be about looking to add as many runs as possible via last-wicket pair Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, before looking to rip through the England batting lineup.
MS Dhoni certainly has the bowlers that can do the damage, with Ishant, Shami and Bhuvneshwar all capable of making the ball talk on this wicket. The most important aspect for the bowlers will be to learn from the mistakes made by the England pacemen on day one.
"In the first session they [the England bowlers] bowled a little short but came with a different plan in the second session and bowled a fuller length," Rahane observed. "In the final session again Plunkett was trying to bowl short. I think shorter length balls are going to be a bit easier to play on this wicket than the fuller ones.
"I'm sure our bowlers will learn from this and bowl a fuller length. I'm sure Ishant and Shami will get us 25-30 quick runs and it's not going to be easy for the England batsmen to bat on this wicket against them."
Playing XI: England: Alastair Cook, Sam Robson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Matt Prior, Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad, Liam Plunkett, James Anderson.
India: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma.
