Wickets and rain aid England bid

FE Team | Published: August 13, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

India's decision not to enforce the follow-on at The Oval backfired somewhat after England took three early wickets before rain stopped play, reports BBC.
Monty Panesar and Chris Tremlett held out for 26 minutes in the morning session before the latter fell lbw with England on 345, still 319 behind.
India opted to bat again, but soon lost Wasim Jaffer (0) lbw to James Anderson.
Tremlett then had Dinesh Karthik (8) caught before Sachin Tendulkar (1) was bowled to leave India 35-3 at lunch.
It was not the start India had hoped for, though with a lead of 354 the tourists will not be panicking just yet.
Panesar and Tremlett (25no) were in defiant mood in the morning session, in the face of some excellent swing and seam bowling from RP Singh and a fabulous spell from Anil Kumble.
The latter had Panesar in all sorts of trouble with a series of googlies, and would have trapped the number 11 lbw sooner had he not over-stepped in the sixth over of the day.
However, it proved only a short stay of execution for Panesar, Kumble trapping him plumb lbw for his 564th Test wicket - outright third in the all-time list, overtaking Australian seamer Glenn McGrath.
Rahul Dravid opted to bat again, presumably hoping to give his bowlers a rest for a couple of sessions before giving his team four sessions to bowl out the hosts.
However, the home pacemen were in top form from the first over, though Anderson was a touch fortunate to be awarded his lbw decision against Jaffer, the ball looking to be going over the top.
Tremlett then took up the mantle, pitching one on off and seaming it enough to garner Karthik's edge, Paul Collingwood taking the catch at second slip.
And when Tendulkar was the next man out, the legendary batsman playing a ripper from Anderson onto his own stumps on what is likely to be his last Test innings in England, India were 11-3.
However, with Ryan Sidebottom still nursing a problem with his side, Anderson and Tremlett were forced to bowl throughout and Sourav Ganguly and Dravid survived without much alarm before the rains came at 1243, forcing an early lunch.
Scorecard
India 1st innings: 664 (all out)
England 1st Innings - 345 (all out)
Runs Balls 4s 6s
Strauss c Sreesanth b Khan 6 13 1 0
Cook c RP Singh b Kumble 61 98 11 0
Anderson Lbw b RP Singh 16 48 3 0
Vaughan c and b Kumble 11 36 2 0
Pietersen c Dravid b Tendulkar 41 107 4 0
Collingwood Lbw b Sreesanth 62 120 9 0
Bell c Dhoni b Khan 63 96 11 0
Prior c Tendulkar b Sreesanth 0 15 0 0
Sidebottom c and b Khan 2 4 0 0
Tremlett not out 25 49 2 0
Panesar Lbw b Kumble 9 42 2 0
Extras:11nb 10w 16b 12lb 49
Total: all out 345 (103.1 ovs)
India 2nd Innings
Karthik c Collingwood b Tremlett 8 15 2 0
Jaffer Lbw b Anderson 0 6 0 0
Dravid c Strauss b Collingwood 12 96 1 0
Tendulkar b Anderson 1 11 0 0
Ganguly c Strauss b Collingwood 57 68 9 0
Laxman not out 12 31 1 0
Dhoni not out 5 18 1 0
Extras: 5nb 1b 4lb 10
Total: for 5 105 (40.0 ovs)
India 180/6 dec. and England 14/0 at 10:30pm.