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TONdulkar
ressurects Indians with a masterpiece knock |
Sachin
'Ton'dulkar produced one of his best innings for
the Indians in his life. Indians were in
desperate trouble at a miserable 14 for 3 with
Onions, the pace bowler making the Indian
batsmen dance at Chelmsford. A vintage
Tendulkar's counter attack however saved the day
for the tourists as they ended at a respectable
336 for 7 at stumps on the second day's play.
Tendulkar got 171 out of those 336 runs!
The day started with
England Lions stretching their overnight score
of 379 for 8 to 413 for 8 declared. Tim Bresnan
remained unbeaten with 126 while Chris Tremlett
smased 32. The Indian innings began on a shaky
note with Wasim Jaffer putting doubts about his
place for the Lord's Test as he failed for the
third time on this tour. He was half cock to an
inswinger from Onions in the 7th ball he had
faced. Jaffer fell in the 2nd over and in the
same over VVS Laxman was forced to nick one
behind to be duck out, a third ball dismissal
for him. The Indians were down and out when
Dinesh Karthik was caught behind by Stuart Broad
to bring in Sourav Ganguly to join Tendulkar.
The partnership shaped out to be a fighting one
but it ended when Ganguly played a reckless pull
off Tremlett, falling for a personal score of 14
and the team total at 65 for 4.
Tendulkar could finally
get an able partner in Yuvraj Singh who spent
enough time to help his senior partner to steer
Indians out of trouble. Tendulkar was 99 when
Tea was called with Indians at 173 for 4.
Yuvraj's innings came to an end during the final
session, playing a loose shot off Stuart Broad.
He pushed for a place in the middle order with a
patient 59 from 106 balls with 8 fours. MS Dhoni
in the company of Tendulkar started to get going
for the first time on this tour to help the
master in putting on 99 runs for the sixth
wicket. Tendulkar towards the end was toying
with the bowling and in an attempt to go for a
big one lost his wicket but not before a
smashing 236-ball 171 which had 26 fours and a
six. That innings clearly showed that he was
still the Boss! The day ended with Zaheer Khan
using the long handle to hit 3 fours and a six
off leggie Adill Rashid in the final over of the
day's play. Poor Adil Rashid was already taken
to the cleaners by Tendulkar and Yuvraj in one
of his overs. Towards the end, MS Dhoni remained
not out with 44 from 63 balls with 4 fours.
Onions was bowled for 17 overs by Strauss in
which he had taken 3 for 69. The third and final
day is the last opportunity for the Indian
bowlers before they get into the Lord's Test.
England Lions 1st
Inngs 413 for 8 declared in 97 Overs (Tim Bresnan 126* Joe Denly 83
Stuart Broad 50 Ravi Bopara 29, Zaheer Khan 3/119 Sreesanth
2/76 Ramesh Powar 2/96 Sachin
Tendulkar 1/24) Vs Indians 1st Inngs
336 for 7 in 80 Overs (Sachin
Tendulkar 171 Yuvraj Singh 59 MS Dhoni 44*,
Graham Onions 3/69 Stuart Broad 2/54 Chris Tremlett 1/40) at County
Ground, Chelmsford
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