Pacers firm India's control vs England

Nottingham, July 29 (IBNS) Pacers put India on top before a telling fight-back from Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann helped England recover from a precarious 124/8 to 221 all out on the first day of the second Test here on Friday.

India were 24 for one at stumps with Rahul Dravid (7) and V.V.S. Laxman (11) weathering a heavy wave of attack right from the first ball that saw young opener Abhinav Mukund lunge forward to a lusty drive only to get caught at gully by Kevin Pietersen off James Anderson.

But the day certainly belonged to India after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to bowl first under overcast conditions at Trent Bridge.

England lost six wickets in the afternoon session to descend to 124 for eight, after being put in under heavy cloud cover by India.

But after Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar had wrecked the top and middle order, a Nottinghamshire pair decided a counter-attack was required.

The two natural strokemakers, Broad (66) and Swann (28) led the fight-back with their evening stand of 73 in only 11 overs. Broad finished with a second consecutive Test 50.

Kumar (three for 45) took two wickets in three deliveries in mid-afternoon to end Andrew Strauss´ 98-ball vigil and see off Eoin Morgan for a duck.

England also lost Matt Prior cheaply too to lurch to 88 for six, and then Sharma (three for 66) repeated the Kumar dose with two more wickets in seven balls.

Sreesanth added the much needed zing in the Indian attack in the absence of Zaheer Khan. The temperamental fast bowler delivered some excellenlty pitched outswingers to trouble the England batsmen consistently.