Strauss finds form at Chelmsford

The tour game between England Lions and the Indians at Chelmsford meandered to a predictable draw, as both sides’ batsmen cashed-in on the benign surface. Andrew Strauss will be particularly relieved after his fluent 80 buried memories of a first-innings failure and gave him a measure of breathing space going into the First Test. Owais Shah, too, kept himself firmly in the queue with a solid 77*.

Stuart Broad, however, was the first beneficiary of the day, as he polished-off the remaining three Indian wickets, after Mahendra Dhoni and Zaheer Khan had slapped a raucous 6-over partnership of 44. Dhoni will be happy to enter the Tests with 76 from 84 balls as his last innings, and he ensured his side cut the first-innings deficit to 30. Broad, however, picked-off Zaheer and Sreesanth in immediate succession, then bowled Dhoni as he swung wildly at a straight ball. Finishing with 5-76, he is now firmly in line to start on the 19th, with Stephen Harmison doubtful. Dhoni made Graham Onions’ figures look rather more ordinary, however, the Durham seamer eventually finishing with 3-90 off 20 overs.

The Indian seam attack offered little more than it had in the first-innings, Zaheer looking anodyne and Ishant Sharma continuing to have massive problems with the popping-crease, sending down 12 no-balls in 9 expensive overs. Zaheer did dismiss Joe Denly, who drive firmly to short cover where Jaffer reacted well and snapped-up the offering. Strauss and Shah, however, looked utterly untroubled, with Ramesh Powar’s fingerspin again posing little difficulty on this surface. Rutra Pratap Singh can now feel fairly confident of taking the third seamer’s slot at Lord’s after Sharma’s problems, while the possibility of two spinners remains highly unlikely.

Strauss did not manage to reach a century, as he attempted to sweep Powar and managed to drag the ball into the stumps. Jonathan Trott, however, refused to waste his chance and ground-out an 82-ball 31*. Towards the end of the innings, Yuvraj Singh impersonated Ravi Shastri and Dinesh Karthik tried his hand at Sachin Tendulkar, mixing-up off- and leg-breaks. Strauss finally called an end to the farce at 227 for 2.

This still left Karthik the chance to showcase his strokeplayer’s side, as he smashed a manic 45-ball 51, before Adil Rashid finally grabbed his first wicket of the game, Karthik driving a simple catch to Ravinder Bopara at cover. Wasim Jaffer and Yuvraj Singh played out the remaining time, Jaffer finally managing some quality time at the crease, if only 74 minutes. Of all the Indian batsmen likely to line-up on the 19th, he has the reason to feel least comfortable. Zaheer and Sreesanth, too, might have hoped to do better. Everyone else, however, will be content with a decent run-out in the two games, and can look forward in great anticipation to the Tests.

England Lions 413 for 8 declared
Joseph Denly 83, Jonathan Trott 46, Tim Bresnan 126*, Stuart Broad 50

Indians 383
Sachin Tendulkar 171, Yuvraj Singh 59, Mahendra Dhoni 76
Stuart Broad 5-76

England Lions 227-2 declared
Andrew Strauss 80, Owais Shah 77*

Indians 91 for 1
Dinesh Karthik 51

Match drawn