Nottingham, July 29 (IANS) India pinned England down to 124/8 at tea on the opening day of the second cricket Test with a brilliant exhibition of swing bowling at Trent Bridge here Friday.
Ishant Sharma (3-38), S.Sreesanth (3-49) and Praveen Kumar (2-27) made batting a nightmare on a green pitch under an overcast sky.
Stuart Broad (6) and Graeme Swann (8) were fighting against the odds to shore up the England first innings.
India took two wickets before lunch and then wrecked the England batting with six wickets in 24 overs in the second session.
The three Indian pacers bowled with great control after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni showed faith in his bowlers to exploit the conditions. Ishant, Praveen and Sreesanth swung the ball from the right length to trouble the opening England batsmen.
Sreesanth, who replaced an injured Zaheer Khan, in the first over after lunch dismissed Lord’s centurian Kevin Pietersen (29), who along with captain Andrew Strauss shared a 50-run stand after England were struggling at 23/2 in the morning.
Pietersen edged an outswinger to third slip Suresh Raina. His dismissal led to a procession.
Praveen, who swung the bowl with admirable control, was rewarded when he removed Strauss and Eoin Morgan in one over.
Strauss, who resolutely batted 98 balls for his 32, went for a drive off Praveen and Raina again pouched a safe catch.
Morgan was dismissed lbw by Praveen for a duck.
Matt Prior (11) was out to a Sreesanth jaffa that squared him up; the edge went to first slip Rahul Dravid.
Dravid fumbled the catch of Ian Bell (31), who bravely held the fort for 81 balls, off Praveen.
Ishant, however, got the wicket of both Bell and Tim Bresnan.
Earlier, Ishant trapped Alastair Cook lbw while Sreesanth had Jonathan Trott caught at second slip in the morning session.
Praveen and Ishant were brilliant in their opening spells and England could score only 18 runs in the first 10 overs, with Cook back in the hut. The left-hander was clearly at unease. He survived a close lbw appeal before Ishant rapped him on his front pad and got a decision in his favour.
The first boundary came in the ninth over when Strauss clipped Praveen off his pads for a boundary through mid-wicket.
Sreesanth struck in his very first over luring Trott for a big drive and forcing an edge to V.V.S Laxman at second slip.
Strauss and Pietersen played cautiously but made the most when the bowlers strayed in their line.
