Bell, Pietersen flay Indian bowling

England made the Indian bowlers toil on the first day of the fourth Test at the Oval on Friday, reaching 296/2 at tea. Ian Bell completed his century and Kevin Pietersen remained not out on 98 to tighten England's grip on the tourists.

Brief scores:

England 1st Innings - 296/2 (Ian Bell 114*, Kevin Pietersen 98*) in 89 overs.

Lunch report:

Indian bowlers put up a much improved show as England batsmen scored sedately to reach 126 for two at lunch on the second day of the fourth and final cricket Test here on Friday.

The Indian seamers led by Ishant Sharma bowled to a disciplined line as the home team could manage only 51 runs off 25 overs in the session losing openers Alastair Cook (34) and skipper Andrew Strauss (40).

Cook failed to add anything to his overnight total while Strauss added only two from 32 balls as both were dismissed in the slip cordon off Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth respectively.

Sharma, who set the trend of the day with a spell of 6-3-7-1, made Cook poke at his fifth delivery of the morning and was easily snapped by Virender Sehwag at first slip, fielding in place of Rahul Dravid who came on to the field only in the fourth over.

As R.P. Singh also kept it tight from the other end, the first four overs of the day produced no runs. Strauss tried to pull a short R.P. Singh delivery first up in the morning but thereafter went into his shell and found it very difficult to get going.

Bell meanwhile began briskly, steering R.P. Singh to third man and cracking Sreesanth through covers yet only 21 runs had accrued to the total from the first 10 overs.

Strauss departed at the stroke of drinks break, driving at a wide delivery from Sreesanth and edging it to wicketkeeper after couple of powerful hits in the cover region didn’t yield desired results.