India back in the swing of things

England struggle to 221 all out in the second cricket Test against the tourists at Nottingham, as Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman resume on Saturday on 24 for one.

India's Praveen Kumar, left, celebrates the dismissal of Andrew Strauss, the England captain, at Nottingham on Friday.

NOTTINGHAM, England // Praveen Kumar and his fellow pacemen bowled India straight back into the series against England on Friday, as Test cricket's two leading sides continued to live up to the hype at Trent Bridge.

Praveen followed his five-wicket haul in the opening match with three more here, during a fine display of swing bowling under leaden skies in the English Midlands.

After thousands of people were locked out before a dramatic final day in the opening Test at Lord's, Kevin Pietersen, the England batsman, said it was starting to feel like the 2005 Ashes all over again.

"It makes you feel as if what you are doing is important," Andrew Strauss, England's captain, added before the start of this Test.

Comparisons with 2005 are setting the bar high. England's first success over Australia in 18 years back then was feted as one of the best series in Test cricket history.

But this meeting of the world's No 1 side, this time India, and the pretenders, has every chance of matching it, judging by the first six days of the series.

The central character in the 2005 Ashes was a lofty, fair-haired all-rounder who made a string of breezy half-centuries while on the counter-attack. The same thing is happening again here. Where Andrew Flintoff starred back then, Stuart Broad is following now.

Broad said in his newspaper column after the first Test that he had never bowled better for England than he had in taking seven wickets in the match at Lord's.

He followed that up yesterday with surely the most important innings he has played to date for his country. His knock of 64 was punctuated by the type of unrestrained hitting for which Flintoff was so loved.

It was as vital as it was attractive. England were 117 for seven when he arrived at the wicket, and soon to be 124 for eight when Ian Bell was caught at the wicket shortly after.

Test matches are rarely won by a side who make less than 150 in the first innings of the game, but the home side appeared to be struggling to make that much at that point. Then Broad blazed away and, aided by a capable partner in Graeme Swann, lifted England all the way up to 221.

Some people had ruled India out of this match as soon as they lost Zaheer Khan, their bowling spearhead, because of a hamstring injury during the first Test.

Yet world champions are not usually one-trick ponies, and in Praveen, Ishant Sharma and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, they had a pace battery well suited to the swinging conditions.

This ground has a history of bringing out the worst in these two sides. When they met here four years ago, the match was overshadowed by one spat over jelly beans, and another over the overly-hostile Sreesanth's use of bouncers and beamers.

It is said that India cross their fingers and hope for the best when Sreesanth plays.

His best is usually pretty good, as he showed in removing Jonathan Trott, Pietersen and Matt Prior, England's three batting heroes from Lord's, cheaply here.

But he could not get through it without showing his combustible side, either. His attempts at intimidation, in particular in trying to sledge Broad while giving away around a foot in height to him, were meek at best.

He also brought attention to himself when he threw the ball up in apparent celebration of a caught and bowled off Bell, then made out like it was a joke when it became clear it had bounced before he took it.

He ruined the punchline by running off chasing after the ball, and everyone else, including the batsman - the umpires and his own teammates - just watched on incredulous, waiting for the scene to play itself out.