Rain has delayed the start of play after lunch on the first day of the fourth and final Test between India and England here today.
It began to drizzle during the lunch break, prompting the groundstaff to bring in the covers.
Opting to bat, England were comfortably placed at 75 for no loss when lunch was called at the Oval here.
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England captain Andrew Strauss was batting on 38 while third Test double centurion Alastair Cook was unbeaten on 34.
Lunch report:
Indian bowling lacked teeth as openers Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss batted comfortably to take England to 75 for no loss at lunch on the opening day of the fourth and final cricket Test here today.
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Skipper Strauss was batting on 38 while last match’s double centurion Cook is giving him company on 34 after England opted to bat at the Oval.
From the moment recalled medium—pacer Rudra Pratap Singh sent a wide delivery down the leg stump which almost bounced twice, Indians never backed themselves to do any worthwhile damage to the hosts’ formidable batting.
Both Cook and Strauss began with boundaries down to the third man region and generally played without any alarm till the second hour when a sharp Ishant Sharma bouncer nearly took England skipper’s head off.
Strauss was on 24, England 48 for no loss, when Sharma dug one in which got Strauss in a tangle and hit him smack on the peak of his helmet, taking a piece off it. An inch below and Strauss could have ended up with a serious blow on his face.
But for this solitary moment of superiority, there wasn’t any genuine moment of shout emerging from the Indians. England openers, for most part of the session, accumulated their runs in ones and twos and only nine fours were hit in the first session.
Strauss hit Sreesanth for two delightful boundaries, putting a straight delivery past the square—leg fence and then getting his stride forward to stroke one back past the bowler.
Cook too got into the swing of things by getting on top of a short delivery from RP and square cutting it to fence and later flicking Sreesanth for yet another boundary.
As the minutes passed by, the strides of batsmen went longer and shots got deeper in front of square.
Indians largely stuck to its medium—pacers in the first session but they didn’t have the quality to make use of overcast conditions. RP only got better after his first over which Ian Botham in the commentary box described as the worst first over he has ever seen in Test cricket.
He finished his first spell of seven overs with 19 runs but his pace was disappointing even by gentle military medium—pace standards.
He clearly looked a bowler who hasn’t played Test cricket for three years now. Sreesanth had his own problems. Clearly uncomfortable in bowling to left—handers, he tended to bowl too straight to two left—handers and was hit for most boundaries— 4 —— during the morning session.
Ishant redeemed himself in this group of average bowlers, beating the bats a couple of times, and managing to extract good bounce out of the surface.
There was a moment of anxiety for the Indians when Dhoni, while collecting a Sharma delivery, wrung his fingers in pain.
Clearly the pounding his hands have suffered over the years is beginning to have its effects.
He received medical attention on the field on his right little finger which had jarred with the impact.