Rohit grabs open invite

Dernbach ended his first spell with figures of 5-0-29-0. At the other end, James Tredwell had just dismissed Kohli, caught and bowled to a nicely dangled off break. Tredwell soon sent back Yuvraj Singh as well. An over later, Rohit worked Joe Root into the leg side for a single that took him from 49 to 50.

back among runs

On 12, Rohit had been dropped by Kevin Pietersen at mid off, off the bowling of Tim Bresnan. Apart from that, he had looked more or less untroubled, and also displayed some of his celebrated timing — particularly a flick that sped across the Mohali outfield and a couple of pulls, all of them coming off Steven Finn. Having taken 73 balls to get to 50, he waded into the spinners, effortlessly launching Tredwell for six, sweeping Tredwell and Patel for fours and then stepping away from his stumps to square-cut Tredwell for another boundary, to move his score to 71 off 83.

Dernbach returned. India needed 135 from 138 balls. Suresh Raina was still new to the crease, and was on 10. At the end of that over, the left-hander had moved to 21, courtesy a double, a single and two swats to the midwicket fence. In Dernbach's next over, Raina spanked another short ball to the leg side boundary. Dernbach's figures now read 7-0-50-0. India needed 107 from 120 balls, and Raina was on 32 off 27.

Finn replaced Dernbach, and immediately removed Rohit, who was out to the third major umpiring error of the day.

umpiring blunders

In the morning, Alastair Cook, who had held England's top order together in difficult conditions and timed 13 gorgeous boundaries in a 106-ball 76, was given out LBW to a ball from Ravichandran Ashwin that pitched outside leg stump. Gautam Gambhir, Cook's counterpart in the Indian lineup, had been given out caught behind when his swish off Bresnan hadn't made contact with the ball. Now, Finn's in-ducker seemed to have moved and bounced too much for a convincing LBW. Finn almost had another wicket soon after, but he had knocked the bails over at the bowler's end in getting Raina to edge a wide one to slip.

... contd.

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