Strauss, Shah consolidate for England at 158/1

Mumbai, Mar 18 (UNI) England opener Andrew Strauss put on an unbeaten 106 runs for the second wicket with debutant Owasis Shah as the two took their side to a commanding position after being put into bat on the opening day of the third and final Test against India being played at the Wankhede stadium here today.

England, who are 1-0 down in the three Test series and need a win to square the series had reached 158 for one with Strauss on 85 and Shah on 50 at the crease.

Resuming at their lunch score of 63 for one, Strauss and Shah took full advantage of a wicket which was offering no assistance to the bowlers with Strauss beginning the post lunch session with a ferocious pull of Irfan Pathan.

Shah then smashed Pathan for three boundaries in one over with two of them being straight drives, while the third being a flick to the midwicket fence.

The two England batsmen attacked Pathan in such a way that Dravid had to take him off after just two overs in which he gave away 19 runs.

Strauss continued to bat positively and brought up his 50 with a flick to the midwicket fence of Munaf Patel. The opener's half century came in 90 balls and was studded with six hits to the fence.

Dravid tried to give his bowlers short spells, with pace at one end and spin at the other, but it did not have any effect on the two England batsmen.

Shah also completed his half century in his debut Test which came after facing 90 deliveries and was studded with eight boundaries.

Earlier in the morning, England continued to be hit with injuries and after Harmison pulled out of the Test a couple of days back, opener Alastaire Cook was also ruled out due to a stomach ailment, thus giving Shah his first Test cap.

England in the morning were given a 50 run opening stand by Strauss and make-shift opener Bell against the three pronged pace attack and though Irfan Pathan and S Sreesanth, who shared the new ball, beat the bat on a few occasions but with the early moisture easing out, the wicket played nicely and the batsmen had no problems at all.

Strauss began confidently stroking a superb straight drive of Pathan. Bell at the other end preferred to play himself in and once again gained in confidence as the ball got old.

The spinners brought into the attack inside the first hour also did not have any impact as Strauss played some lovely shots on the off side.

However, just when it looked like the two would take England to lunch without the loss of a wicket, Bell trying to cut Sreesanth played uppishly straight to point where Harbhajan Singh made no mistake at all.

England earlier made three changes to their side from Mohali bringing in Owasis Shah, off spinner Shaun Udal and pace bowler James Anderson for Alastair Cook, Liam Plunkett and Steve Harmison, while India brought in a fit again S Sreesanth in place of rookie leg spinner Piyush Chawla.

For India captain Rahul Dravid joined a select group of Indian players to have played 100 test matches, with the others being Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar and Anil Kumble.

Sachin Tendulkar also added another record to his name by overtaking Kapil Dev to become the most capped Indian player with this being his 132nd Test match.

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