Indian openers failed to get going on a seaming wicket as the visitors took lunch at 73 for two with England pacers getting decent movement on the opening day of the second Test at Lord's, here today.
Put into to bat on a green top, India lost Shikhar Dhawan (7) early as pace spearhead James Anderson (11/1) drew first blood with a moving delivery and Gary Ballance took a low catch at third slip.
Murali Vijay did try to stick around after an initial dropped chance against Stuart Broad (0/16) but could not capitalise as he fell to Liam Plunkett (1/20) with Ballance taking the second catch of the day.
Cheteshwar Pujara (11) and Virat Kohli (20) then stuck around to stitch a 25-run unbeaten stand and take the visitors to lunch without any more casualty.
Everyone at Lord's was in for a surprise at the start of the day when it was revealed that the pitch curators hadn't shaved the green grass off the pitch.
There was no doubt that Anderson was fired up after the build-up to this match had been marred by the alleged incident between him and Ravindra Jadeja. There was movement available to him from the word go and the resultant dismissal of Dhawan was quick in arrival.
In the very next over, England should have had a second wicket but keeper Matt Prior failed to latch on to a dipping edge from Vijay off Broad. The opener was yet to open his account at that instant and then went on to play a patient knock along with Pujara, with the 50-run mark coming up for India in the 22nd over.
The two batsmen added 37 runs for the second wicket, watching the ball carefully and leaving as many balls as possible. They were helped with the fact that the English bowlers, on getting an early success, perhaps got a little carried away with the conditions available.
They didn't make the batsmen play enough and it was a staggering statistic that none of their deliveries from the first eight overs bowled would have gone on to hit the stumps.
