Spinners stifle England
India's spinners combined to continue England's demise towards a modest first-innings total despite a battling performance from the middle order in the first Test.
Resuming the second day at the Chepauk Stadium on 229 for five, England had hoped all-rounder Andrew Flintoff could make amends for losing four wickets during the previous evening and guide them to a competitive total.
But Flintoff fell in the third over of the morning and despite a defiant display from nightwatchman Jimmy Anderson and a battling from Matt Prior, England slipped to 294 for eight at lunch.
Lancastrian Flintoff had resumed overnight on 18 and had been fortunate to survive a strong lbw appeal from seamer Ishant Sharma off the third delivery of the day. Television replays suggested the ball would have hit leg stump, but umpire Billy Bowden rejected the appeal to help England's cause just a day after delivering a bad decision to dismiss Paul Collingwood at short leg off his pad.
It was a temporary disappointment for India, who replaced Sharma with leg-spinner Amit Mishra in the next over and he struck five balls later to lift their hopes of seizing control of the Test. Attempting to fend off a full-length delivery, Flintoff only succeeded in deflecting the ball off his pad to Gautam Gambhir at short leg to give India a flying start to the morning.
Sharma returned to the attack seven overs later as India struggled to break England's stubborn seventh-wicket partnership and almost struck in his first over. Anderson had battled for 16 overs to reach six when he edged Sharma's third ball low to the normally reliable Rahul Dravid, who dropped the regulation catch.
Lancashire seamer Anderson responded to that reprieve by demonstrating his expanding repertoire as a batsman, reverse sweeping Mishra for the first four of the day in the 15th over.
Prior, playing his first Test in nearly a year, began slowly but started to demonstrate the determined approach which served him so well in scoring 63 against Sri Lanka at Kandy against Muttiah Muralitharan. He grew in confidence enough to slog sweep Harbhajan Singh for four in his first over, but finally lost Anderson in the next over when he attempted a similar shot against Mishra but picked out Yuvraj Singh in the deep.
Anderson had battled for almost two hours for his 19 and prevented England collapsing after Flintoff's early demise, but was soon followed by debutant Graeme Swann back to the dressing room.
Despite predictions of a turning wicket, there had been few signs of big turn until Swann faced Harbhajan in the next over and was beaten by a delivery which kicked off the pitch and he fended to slip.
