On the eve of the tea interval, India's decision to bat first at Manchester, horrendously backfired on Team India.
In less than 4 hours after opting to bat first, MSD's XI had stumbled to 6/4 in no time. Despite resistance from Rahane and Dhoni, Rahane's lack of temperament on the edge of lunch saw him depart, with the scorecard on 63/5.
After lunch, Ashwin showed his batting capabilities and why he should have been played instead of Rohit at the Aegeas Bowl, in putting on 66 with his captain, before he, too, misjudged his shot selection and tamely pull into Robson's hands jogging in from deep square leg.
The Indian skipper posted his 1st 50 of the series, in the hope Kumar and the tail could muster runs and pass 200, at least. It wasn't to be as they fell like a pack of cards and Broad walked away with 6/25. The total included 6 batters failing to score a run. The other issue in the batting to date has been the fact that only Vijay and Rahane have been the only 2 specialist batters to cross 55. MSD added 70 to that in his role as the 'all rounder'.
With the sun shining, its up to the Indian seamers to see if they can extract some pace and bounce very early in Englands innings, or it will become very difficult so early in the match, to even think about anything bar defeat.
The other issue that has been affecting India is their ability to catch in the slip region. Yesterday, I witnessed the slip catching practice and to say their coach wasn't happy would be an understatement.
India have all the work to do. England will be jumping for joy at their efforts in the first 2 sessions of the match that gives them a huge advantage in going 2/1 up.
Dhoni have to play same innings which he played against us in 1st odi at chennai 230-240 can be a decent total on this pitch but to make it decent your bowlers have to strike on consistent basis which is highly unlikely
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