The batting chaos of India continues as their batting line-up crumbled again on the rain-affected day-two of the second Test match at Lords.
Things became quite complex for the away side when they were asked to bat in the overcast conditions by the home side. James Anderson bowled a beautiful out-swinging delivery to provide the breakthrough of the opener Murali Vijay in the very first over.
The whole of the top order could not settle their feet on the crease and all three were returned to the pavilion on the score of 15. The expressions of the uncertainty continued on the faces as the players were forced to leave the field again because of the rain.
It took more than three hours to finally have the surroundings positive to play some cricket on. It was hard to bat on the wicket after the continuous episodes of rain and it seemed the bowlers would be licking their fingers to see that kind of bowling paradise.
The wickets of the Indian batsmen kept falling as they could not face the volume of heat delivered by the English bowlers and they all were returned to the pavilion in space of just 35.2 overs. James Anderson took another fifer to his account after the extremely good bowling figures of 5/20 in 13.2 overs.
James Anderson got hold of 99 wickets at the Lords and with his splendid performance, he will now be cruising towards another target record of being the highest wicket taker as a fast bowler in Test cricket.
The record is currently held by Glenn McGrath after having 563 wickets in his bag and Anderson is just 15 wickets away to break that record.
The rest of the pacers provided big support to the star bowler and Chris Woakes who made a return to the side after his injury took the vital scalp of Virat Kohli to increase the dominance of England in the innings.
After horrendous batting outing, India would be looking to make a comeback in the next innings to turn the odds in their favour. England, on the other hand, will try to set a respectable total to have their command on this Test match so they can exceed their lead in the five-match Test series.
