India out for 453 despite Dravid, Gambhir tons

Mohali: In sudden turn of events, England managed to put breaks on Indian domination on the second day of the second Test match by taking quick wickets to restrict the hosts to a mere 453 in their first innings here on Saturday.

It was Graeme Swann who brought England right back into the match with three quick wickets, leaving it to India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6) and Yuvraj Singh (12) to battle it out in the middle at tea break.

But local lad Yuvraj departed soon after the start of the final session of play. He was picked up by Monty Panesar for 27.

In contrast, at lunch, India were sitting comfortably on 302-1 with Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid, both playing steady innings each. But just after the break, Swann struck back to return Gambhir for a well-made 179 to be caught by Alastair Cook, hence bringing an end to a mammoth 314-run partnership between him and Dravid.

He followed it up with wicket of Dravid just four overs later, who departed in a similar fashion, trying to go after the bowler but could not clear Monty Panesar at mid-off.

Swann then made it three in a row by sending back Sachin Tendulkar for 11, while Andrew Flintoff also joined the party by trapping Laxman in front for a duck.

But much to the relief of the home crowd Cook dropped Yuvraj.

Earlier, Gambhir completed 1000 runs in a calendar year, but it was the former India captain who stole the show with his 26th Test hundred.

After resuming at the overnight score of 179-1, the duo adopted a cautious approach in the morning as the ball did seam and swing but they successfully saw off the first session of the day without losing a single wicket.

Gambhir, who cracked his third century in four matches on Friday, began the proceedings straight with a boundary and played a sensible innings. Dravid, meanwhile made a confident start after getting the monkey off his back yesterday with his first half-century in nine innings.

After staying on a bit in the nervous 90's Dravid tucked James Anderson off his pads to bring up his milestone that took him 260 balls to get there. But he finally managed to silence his critics as his last ton came versus South Africa in Chennai in March this year.

But for England bowlers the first session turned out to be a tough one as their hopes of getting early breakthroughs to get back into the match did not work out in a match that started 30 minutes ahead of scheduled time to compensate the time lost on Friday.

The match started late on Friday due fog in the morning and was called off early due to bad light, cutting short 18-overs of the first day.

Sachin Tendulkar (11) had scored his 12,000th Test run at the same ground against Australia in October but he let down his fans on this occasion. Tendulkar attempted a paddle shot but completely missed the line and umpire Daryl Harper had no doubt that the Swann delivery would have hit the stumps.

Bowling without luck so far, Flintoff decided to join the party and the talismanic Englishman trapped VVS Laxman with one that jagged back as India, from the comfort of a commanding 320 for one, suddenly slumped to 339 for five.

Laxman had a 24-ball struggle at the end of which the stylish right-hander departed with a duck against his name.

The Indian crisis would have compounded but butter-finger Cook spilled a pretty regulation catch at gully after Yuvraj Singh (27), then at eight, had played Flintoff away from his body.

Not that Yuvraj could make the most of the opportunity. The left-hander had blasted three fours and a huge six off Swann when he fell to a soft caught-behind dismissal that gave Panesar his first wicket of the match.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (29) hit Anderson for two boundaries before perishing in the same over. At the other end, a nonchalant Harbhajan Singh swung his bat at everything before falling to Panesar after a 21-ball 24.

Flintoff removed Zaheer Khan (7) and Amit Mishra (23) to drop curtains on the Indian innings.