India V England – 4th Test Day 4 – England lose openers before tea

After declaring their first innings on 326 for 9, four runs short of England’s 330 all out, India had a successful second session on day four of the ongoing fourth Test in Nagpur here on Sunday, picking up two wickets at the Poms went into tea at 81 for 2, with an overall lead of 85 runs. Jonathan Trott was not out on 22.


India’s ace spinner Pragyan Ojha removed opener Nick Compton on 34, having him trapped plumb in front, just on the stroke of the interval to give the hosts a timely boost.

Prior to that, Ojha’s fellow off-spinner R Ashwin claimed the prized wicket of danger man Alastair Cook for 13 off 93 balls, an unusual pace of scoring for the in-form Essex star who had scored three successive centuries in the previous three games of the series.

The tourists started their second innings in an extremely cautious manner reaching lunch on 17 without loss in 13 overs, with Cook unbeaten on 1 and Nick Compton not out on 14.

Compton, who has recently been awarded an incremental award by the ECB, smashed the day’s first boundary five minutes before lunch, edging a very full delivery off R Ashwin to the third man. Compton’s opening partner, skipper Alastair Cook also started meticulously reaching 5 from 78 balls before finding the rope with a cover drive off Ashwin’s fuller delivery.

The visiting skipper must consider himself unlucky as he was removed through and umpiring error for the second time in the match. After being incorrectly adjudged lbw in the first innings, Cook was this time declared caught behind when the ball went past his bat without any hint of an outside edge. The field umpire involved in both the wrong decisions was ICC’s Umpire of the Year, Kumar Dharmasena.

Earlier in the day, India resumed their innings on 297 for 8 and batted bizarrely for almost an hour before declaring their first innings on 326 for 9. Pragyan Ojha was the only wicket that the home side lost on Sunday morning. He was bowled out by Monty Panesar on 3.

For England, pace spearhead James Anderson was the wrecker in chief finishing with impressive figures of 4 for 81 while ace off-spinner Graeme Swann claimed 3 for 76.