Bhuvneshwar swings it, but Test in Ballance

LONDON: At a venue where they have traditionally struggled, Team India won four of the first five sessions before England No. 3 Gary Ballance compelled attention with a sparkling century to leave the second Test at Lord's tantalizingly poised.
With a hot afternoon sun sucking out all the juice and leaving the pitch bereft of greenery, Indian bowlers could derive no lateral movement but fortune swung prodigiously every session before leaving India with a slender advantage.
At close on Day 2, England were unhappily placed at 219/6 -76 runs behind India's first innings tally of 295 -after having lost Ballance (110) and Moeen Ali (32) to casual strokes.
Ballance and Ali had wrested initiative back from India with a 98-run partnership for the fifth wicket but were also responsible for throwing it away.
The dismissals of Ballance, who got a faint tickle to a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery down the leg side after notching up his second consecutive hundred at Lord's, and Ali, who failed to read part-timer Murali Vijay's innocuous off-spin, left Matt Prior (2), Liam Plunkett (4) and the remaining English batsmen with the task of negotiating the second new ball that is just six overs old and get the team a substantial first innings lead to cushion the pangs of having to bat last in the match.
Indian players had a good day in office. On a pitch that appeared to have grown bald and brown overnight, Bhuvneshwar led the Indian attack and repeatedly probed England batsmen outside their off-stump before reaping the dividends.
Bhuvi, who had bowled his heart out on a lifeless track at Trent Bridge to grab five wickets, bowled a nagging off-stump line to frustrate Alastair Cook. The captain showed no signs of returning to form as he hung out his bat to one from Bhuvi that left him a shade and Dhoni did the rest. Cook's latest failure could have far-reaching consequences on his career.
Mohammad Shami, who consistently bowled a touch short in his opening spell, should have had the scalp of Sam Robson had Ajinkaya Rahane held on to a regulation edge at second slip even on his second attempt or Ravindra Jadeja scooped it up on the rebound. Robson, then on eight, could not make it count, giving Bhuvi his second wicket and leaving England two down for 51 at lunch.
There was no change in England's fortunes in the second session with Ishant Sharma, who fired in a wild 'wide' in his first over, kept the pressure up by hitting the pads on a couple of occasions and Stuart Binny too bowling an attacking line.
Binny, in fact, could have picked up his maiden wicket had either Dhoni or Shikhar Dhawan made an attempt to catch the ball instead of merely looking at each other.
England's misery was compounded soon after as the experienced Ian Bell was taken by Jadeja at third slip after the ball went off the gloves of the batsman, whose last-minute attempt to sway out of a Bhuvi delivery went in vain.
And when the prolific Joe Root was trapped in front of his stumps by a quicker one from Jadeja, England slipped to 113 for four. But Ballance and Ali took full toll of a tiring attack and an old ball to revive England. Till Bhuvi struck again with the new ball.