England's batsmen flatten India on 417-run day

Sports

England's batsmen flatten India on 417-run day

Close

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni recalled Bell after a bizarre run out.

01 August,2011 05:17 am

For two days, the swinging and seaming ball dominated the bat at Trent Bridge, and eleven wickets fell. On the third, the trend was reversed, emphatically. Faced with adversity - England trailed by 43 at the start and lost Andrew Strauss with the deficit still 10 - Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen played memorable counterattacking innings, batting with the confidence of champions during a 162-run partnership plundered at 4.47 runs per over.Eoin Morgan and Matt Prior then converted Englands lead from healthy to practically unassailable with aggressive half-centuries, capitalising on wayward bowling, ragged fielding and listless captaincy. At stumps England led by 374 with four wickets in hand, having scored 417 runs in the day, and Indias chances of winning or saving the match were slim. Englands cricket was simply superior to Indias, before and after the flashpoint that caused chaos minutes before tea.Englands lead was 187 with seven wickets in hand, when Bell, batting on 137 with the mastery of Yoda, made a rookies assumption that ended his innings, temporarily. Morgan flicked the last ball before tea towards the square-leg boundary, where Praveen Kumar dived to try to save it. And he did, though he didnt think he had. Praveen then took his time to get up and throw the ball towards the wicketkeepers end, by which time Bell had gone to the non-strikers end, jogging at first and then walking, either because he thought it was a boundary or that tea had been called. The throw reached Abhinav Mukund and he took off the bails, after which the umpire called over and handed Ishant Sharma his sweater. India had appealed for a run-out, though, and after a long delay, while the decision was referred to the third umpire, Bell was given out.The Indian team was greeted with boos from the Nottingham crowd as play resumed after tea. But suddenly Bell walked out to bat and there were cheers. During the tea interval Englands captain and coach, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower, had asked Dhoni if he was willing to withdraw the appeal. India had been within their rights to appeal for the run-out, and Bell was out according to the laws, but Dhoni agreed to let Bell resume his innings. Bell added only 22 runs after the drama before he edged Yuvraj Singh to slip.