March 10, 2006	Friday	Safar 9, 1427

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MOHALI (India), March 9: Kevin Pietersen hit a brisk 64 to help England recover to 163 for four on a rain-hit opening day of the second Test against India on Thursday. The South Africa-born number four batted with typical aggression to pull England out of early trouble on a day when almost half the playing time was lost to poor light and rain.

Pietersen added 81 for the third wicket with Ian Bell (38) after seamer Irfan Pathan struck in successive overs to reduce England to 36 for two.

Pietersen’s second successive 50, following his 87 in the second innings of the drawn first Test in Nagpur, included 10 fours and one six before he offered a tame return catch to debutant paceman Munaf Patel.

Paul Collingwood (19) and captain Andrew Flintoff (4) were together when play was halted then called off due to bad light after tea with only 50 of the day’s 90 overs bowled.

More than 2-1/2 hours were lost after the start was delayed by 45 minutes due to overnight rain.

Flintoff won the toss and chose to bat on a grassless Mohali pitch. England brought in Liam Plunkett for his second test and omitted all-rounder Ian Blackwell who failed on debut in Nagpur.

India made three changes from the first Test, dropping batsmen Vangipurappu Laxman and Mohammad Kaif and seamer Shantakumaran Sreesanth. Yuvraj Singh returned after missing the Nagpur game with a hamstring injury.

Pathan removed Andrew Strauss (18) and fellow left-hander Alastair Cook (17) in the morning.

Cook, who struck 104 not out on his Test debut in Nagpur, and Strauss had confidently added 35 runs before Pathan struck in the 11th over.

Strauss slashed a wide ball to wicket-keeper Mahendra Dhoni who took a tumbling catch to his left. Cook was then trapped lbw playing across a pitched-up delivery which swung in late.

Pietersen swept debutant leggie Piyush Chawla for four then swung the next ball over midwicket for six early on.

The 17-year-old Chawla, included as the third spinner alongside Kumble and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, extracted turn and kept a tidy line without really troubling Pietersen or Bell.

Pietersen drove Patel twice through cover and flicked him past square leg for three fours. He lofted Kumble over mid-off for four and then steered Pathan past third man to reach fifty.

Kumble bowled Bell to leave England on 118 for three at tea, after play was halted in the afternoon due to poor light despite the floodlights being switched on.

He deceived Bell with a googly to clip the off-bail after the England batsman shaped to leave the delivery. Kumble is three short of becoming only the fifth player in Test history to claim 500 wickets.

Patel struggled initially on a flat pitch, having taken 10 England wickets in the warm-up game before the first Test.

However, he clocked almost 90 mph with a few deliveries in his evening spell and rattled Collingwood with a yorker which rolled past the leg stump.

Meanwhile, Flintoff has become a father for a second time, a team spokesman said on Thursday.

His wife Rachael gave birth to a boy in England on Wednesday night. The couple have an 18-month-old daughter.

Flintoff dropped plans to be with his wife for the delivery after he was named captain in the absence of injured captain Michael Vaughan and his deputy Marcus Trescothick.

Flintoff plans to fly home during the five-day gap between the third and final Test in Mumbai and the One-day International series starting on March 28.

The all-rounder, who says he always calls tails, won the toss for a second time in two Tests as he chose to bat in the second Test against India on Thursday.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND 1st innings

A.J. Strauss c Dhoni b Pathan 18

A.N. Cook lbw b Pathan 17

I.R. Bell b Kumble 38

K.P. Pietersen c and b Patel 64

P.D. Collingwood not out 19

A. Flintoff not out 4

EXTRAS (LB-1, NB-2) 3

TOTAL (for four wkts, 50.3 overs) 163

FALL OF WKTS: 1-35, 2-36, 3-117, 4-157.

TO BAT: G.O. Jones, L.E. Plunkett, M.J. Hoggard, S.J. Harmison, M.S. Panesar.

BOWLING (to-date): Irfan Pathan 16-3-54-2; Munaf Patel 11.3-1-44-1 (2nb); Harbhajan Singh 6-0-15-0; Piyush Chawla 5-1-20–0; Kumble 12-3-29-1.

INDIA: Wasim Jaffer, V. Sehwag, R. Dravid, S.R. Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, M.S. Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, A. Kumble, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel.

UMPIRES: D.B. Hair and S.J.A. Taufel (both Australia).

TV UMPIRE: A.V. Jayaprakash (India).

MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Madugalle (Sri Lanka).—Reuters