India’s tail piles misery on England

India’s number 11 Mohammed Shami embarrassed England with the bat and then ensured home captain Alastair Cook’s poor run of scores continued as the tourists seized control of the first Test at Trent Bridge.

India piled up 457 on Thursday’s second day on the back of a record last-wicket stand against England of 111 between Bhuvneshwar Kumar (58) and last man Shami (51 not out). Both batsmen scored maiden fifties at this level as they exceeded their previous Test-best innings of 39 (Kumar) and 11 (Shami) respectively.

Second day scorecard

India first innings 457 England first innings A Cook b Shami 5 S Robson not out 20 G Ballance not out 15 Extras (w 1, nb 2) 3 Total (1 wicket; 17 overs) 43 Fall of wickets 1-9

Shami then made it 25 innings for Cook since the last of his England record 25 Test hundreds when he bowled him round his legs for five after the ball deflected off the left-handed opener’s thigh pad.

Cook’s exit left England nine for one, with both Kumar and Shami, who took one for 15 in five overs, finding a degree of swing with the new ball that largely eluded the home pacemen.

However, Sam Robson (20 not out) and Gary Ballance (15 not out) saw England to 43 for one at stumps.

England had looked like dismissing India for under 400, which would have been a decent effort on such a sluggish surface when the tourists slumped to 346 for nine after several self-inflicted wounds.

But for the second time in as many Tests at Trent Bridge, England found themselves on the receiving end of a huge last wicket stand after Australia’s Phil Hughes and Ashton Agar put on a world record 163 last year, in a match Cook’s side won nonetheless.

England might have been expecting some runs from Kumar, who has a first-class hundred behind him. But the batting of Shami, who prior to this match had a Test average of 3.33, was something else.

Their stand comfortably surpassed India’s previous highest tenth-wicket partnership against England of 73 shared by Anil Kumble and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth at The Oval in 2007.

It also emphasised what a good toss it had been for India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to win and how tired England’s seamers had become after charging in on a ‘shirt-front’ pitch.