Cook century leads dominant England

Cook century leads dominant England

Alastair Cook's 19th Test hundred helped England into a commanding position on the second day at Edgbaston as they reached 319 for 2 by tea. That is already a lead of 95 after Cook and Andrew Strauss added 187 for the first wicket as the hosts made India's total look hugely below par. The visitors did manage a couple of successes but nothing quelled England's progress.

A period of consolidation when play began soon turned into more free-scoring after India had been unable to force any early breakthroughs. Runs had started to flow before lunch and continued after the break, as 162 was added in 35 overs during the afternoon, and Strauss's departure for 87 didn't bother England. Ian Bell launching his innings with a flurry of boundaries although fell to a beautiful leg-cutter from Praveen Kumar, who was comfortably the pick of India's seamers, and Kevin Pietersen was soon into his stride.

Cook, who began the day determined to play straight and leave well, reached his hundred - the third of the season and fourth of the year - from 213 balls as he moved on from his four low scores that started the series. The innings included his trademark timing through the leg side and regular cover drives as he benefited from working on the patience of the bowlers. A mark of the increasing pace of Cook's progress, and the value of wearing down an attack, was that his first fifty took 130 balls.

India's cricket remained largely disappointing with a general lethargy in the field and not enough consistency from the attack. Strauss and Cook were content to see through the early overs, following a half hour delay, knowing that India's only way back into the match was early wickets and that scoring would become easier.

Praveen's morning spell read 7-5-2-0 but the hard work of the openers began to reap rewards as runs started to come. Strauss scored the day's first boundary with a slash through gully and Cook followed with a flowing cover drive. Third man became a productive area as edges went down rather than carry to the slips, adding to the bowler's frustrations. Both openers milked Mishra's legspin although there were occasional problems with turn from the footmarks.

Mishra regularly overstepped but got away with another no-ball when Strauss was bowled playing the sweep and replays showed he'd overstepped. Strauss had a century on offer, and it would have been his first in Tests since Brisbane, but the innings showed that any talk about a serious decline is premature.

Bell raced out of the blocks with three boundaries in Ishant Sharma's comeback over although the second of them was an inside edge that flew over the stumps. The other two showed Bell's timing at its best and he was soon picking the gaps down to third man which, again, remained vacant. He was given a life on 30 when Rahul Dravid spilled a low chance at first slip off Sreesanth; the ball was dipping as it reached Dravid but iwasn't travelling quickly.

However, it wasn't too costly for India in terms of Bell's contribution as Praveen gained deserved reward for his unstinting effort with a delivery that almost matched the one Tim Bresnan produced to remove Dravid yesterday. England, though, continued to move along at a healthy rate as Pietersen picked up the baton from Bell with a brisk start.

He flicked his first boundary not far from leg slip but was served up some poor deliveries and was clearly keen to dominate Mishra. He drilled him straight for four and later launched a full toss in the stands at long on. Even with fairly defensive fields Pietersen and Cook kept the boundaries flowing and India need to find a spark to stop them being buried under a mountain of runs. 

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