LONDON, July 26: Two late wickets put England back on top of the first Test at Lord’s on the second day on Friday after India’s Virender Sehwag had led a spirited reply to their daunting first innings total of 487.

Sehwag stroked 84 from 96 balls with 10 fours and a six before he was unluckily out when an inside edge off left-arm spinner Ashley Giles rebounded off his pads on to the stumps.

Nightwatchman Ashish Nehra followed shortly afterwards lbw to Andy Flintoff for a duck to leave the tourists on 130 for three at the close.

Matthew Hoggard bowled Wasim Jaffer for one with the fifth ball of the innings before Sehwag and Rahul Dravid (33 not out) added 126 for the second wicket.

Earlier, Nasser Hussain scored 155, his highest test score as England captain, with other significant contributions coming from Flintoff (59 in 62 balls), Craig White (53) and debutant fast bowler Simon Jones (44).

After England had scored a daunting 487, anchored by a marathon 155 from captain Nasser Hussain, Hoggard struck from the Nursery End as Wasim Jaffer played around a full-length straight delivery.

Hoggard switched to the Pavilion End in place of Andy Flintoff, who had conceded only six runs from four accurate overs, and Sehwag immediately drove him to the extra cover boundary with a wristy flourish.

Rahul Dravid joined in the fun with a controlled cover drive for four from Giles as India raced to 50 in even time. Midway through the evening session the tourists had reached 64 for one with Sehwag on 36 and Dravid on 24.

Earlier Hussain, who came to the crease in the second over of the match on Thursday, added 35 to his overnight score before.

Then after more than seven hours at the crease, he was dismissed 15 minutes before lunch aiming a weary drive at medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar.

He remonstrated with himself as he left the field to a standing ovation but the 11th and second-highest century of his test career had put England in a position to dictate the course of the opening game of the four-match series.

On another hot, sunny morning Flintoff supplied his own particular brand of aggression, helping Hussain add 93 runs from 113 balls for the sixth wicket after Alec Stewart had been dismissed without adding to his overnight score of 19.

Flintoff turned left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra firmly to the square-leg boundary for four and struck the next delivery majestically square off the back foot for another. In Zaheer’s next over he drove a further brace of fours through extra-cover and mid-off and India captain Saurav Ganguly, anxious to restrict the scoring, turned to Anil Kumble.

Ganguly dropped his field back, placing Sachin Tendulkar as a sweeper on the cover boundary, but to no avail as Flintoff brought up his 50 with a six over long-on off Kumble.

A further boundary off Agarkar followed before Flintoff followed a wide delivery without much discernible foot movement and edged a simple catch for wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra. His 59 from only 62 balls had contained 10 fours and a six.

Hussain followed off the first ball of Agarkar’s next over to a similar shot after batting for 458 minutes and hitting 25 fours from 331 deliveries and the India all-rounder was suddenly on a hat-trick, averted comfortably enough by Giles.

The tail-end of the innings was enlivened by an highly-entertaining knock from debutant Simon Jones, picked for his fast bowling but making his initial impact with an aggressive 44 from only 43 balls.

Jones hit left-arm pace bowler Zaheer Khan into the members’ stand for a six, drove and pulled Kumble for successive boundaries then repeated the treatment with consecutive fours from Agarkar.

He survived a dropped catch at long-on by Agarkar before popping a simple catch to Dravid at slip off Kumble after adding 62 runs for the ninth wicket with Craig White.

White, chosen ahead of Dominic Cork because of his superior batting, justified his selection with a responsible innings of 53, including four boundaries and a six over mid-wicket off Kumble.

ENGLAND (1st innings) (overnight 257-4)

M.Butcher c Jaffer b Kumble 29

M.Vaughan lbw b Khan 0

N.Hussain c Ratra b Agarkar 155

G.Thorpe b Khan 4

J.Crawley c Dravid b Sehwag 64

A.Stewart lbw b Khan 19

A.Flintoff c Ratra b Agarkar 59

C.White st Ratra b Kumble 53

A.Giles b Nehra 19

S.Jones c Dravid b Kumble 44

M.Hoggard not out 10

EXTRAS (b-11 lb-11 w-2 nb-7) 31

TOTAL (all out, 142.2 overs) 487

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 2-71 3-78 4-223, 5-263, 6-356, 7-357, 8-390, 9-452

BOWLING: A.Nehra 30-4-101-1 (nb-5, w-2), Z.Khan 36-13-90-3, A.Agarkar 21-3-98-2, A.Kumble 42.2-9-128-3, S.Ganguly 3-1-16-0 (nb-1), V.Sehwag 10-0-32-1 (nb-1)

India (1st innings)

W.Jaffer b Hoggard 1

V.Sehwag b Giles 84

R.Dravid not out 33

A.Nehra lbw b Flintoff 0

EXTRAS (b-4 lb-5 nb-3) 12

TOTAL (for three wickets, 36.4 overs) 130

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-2, 2-128, 3-130

TO BAT: S.Ganguly, V.Laxman, A.Ratra, A.Kumble, A.Agarkar, Z.Khan, S.Tendulkar

BOWLING: Hoggard 8-2-23-1, Flintoff 7.4-4-8-1 (nb-1), Giles 8-1-45-1, Jones 7-0-25-0 (nb-2), White 6-2-20-0—Reuters