NAGPUR, 3 March 2006 — Indian opener Wasim Jaffer marked his comeback with a half-century after Paul Collingwood hit his maiden hundred to revive England in the evenly balanced opening Test here yesterday.
Jaffer, returning to the team after three years, scored an unbeaten 73 as India survived an early blow to reach 136-1 at stumps on the second day in reply to England’s 393 all out.
Skipper Rahul Dravid was the other not out batsman on 40. He put on 125 for the unfinished second wicket with Jaffer after his team had lost opener Virender Sehwag.
Paceman Matthew Hoggard struck in his second over when he had hard-hitting Sehwag (two) caught by Kevin Pietersen in the covers off an uppish drive. England struggled for a breakthrough in the last session as Jaffer and Dravid applied themselves well on a slow wicket. The opener has so far hit 13 fours in his fourth Test half-century and the captain six in his 114-ball knock.
The tourists’ pace attack, comprising Hoggard, Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff, was inconsistent while left-arm spinners Monty Panesar and Ian Blackwell were unable to extract sharp turn off the second-day track.
But England had reasons to be pleased with their batting performance as they found Collingwood (134 not out) in fine nick, just when they needed a long-innings from a batsman to keep in the match. The tourists were precariously placed at 246-7 overnight, but Collingwood received valuable support from tail-enders to help his team post a respectable total. England thwarted the hosts for more than a session with determined batting as they put on 126 runs for the last two wickets.
Collingwood played a key role in rallying his team. He put on 60 for the ninth wicket with Harmison (39) and 66 for the last with debutant Panesar (nine). The gutsy all-rounder was on 79 when Panesar came to the crease, but farmed the strike intelligently to complete his hundred with a pair of bold shots off spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Collingwood, 53 overnight, danced down the track to loft the spinner over long-on for a six to reach 99 and then repeated the shot off the next ball, this time for three runs. He went on the rampage in the afternoon session, severely punishing left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan. He stepped out to hoist the paceman for six over long-on and later struck three successive fours in an over off the same bowler. England were finally bowled out 35 minutes after the lunch-break when debutant paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth trapped Panesar leg-before for his fourth victim. Panesar defied the Indian attack for more than an hour. Collingwood, 29, smashed four sixes and 13 fours in his 252-ball knock.
