England captain Alastair Cook suffered another failure with the bat as India seized control of the second Test at Lord’s on Friday.
England were 2-51 in their first innings, in reply to India’s 295, at lunch on day two – still facing a deficit of 244 runs with eight wickets in hand.
Cook’s miserable trot continued, caught by wicketkeeper MS Dhoni for 10 off Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowling to leave England at 1-22.
Fellow opener Sam Robson fell to Kumar in identical fashion for 17, putting England in an uncomfortable position at 2-31.
Robson had been dropped by Ajinkya Rahane two balls before Cook’s dismissal.
Gary Ballance, seven not out, and Ian Bell (11no) managed to get through safely to the lunch break.
Cook has gone 26 innings since scoring the last of his England record 25 Test hundreds, with his tally for the calendar year standing at a meagre 107 runs in eight Test innings.
The 29-year-old left-hander’s poor form has coincided with an England slump in which the team have not won in nine Tests – their worst streak for more than 20 years.
As if conscious he had often been caught in the slips while struggling for runs, Cook met Kumar’s first ball of the innings with an exaggerated straight forward defensive shot.
But having looked assured for 40 minutes, Cook’s 29-ball knock including two fours, came to an end.
Not moving his feet, Cook nicked a good-length ball just outside off stump that swung away from Kumar through to Dhoni.
Early on day two, it took England just 10 balls to wrap up India’s innings after they resumed at 9-290, with Cook holding a juggled catch at first slip to dismiss Mohammed Shami (19) off Ben Stokes.
India had been in dire straits at 7-145 after being sent in to bat on a green, seaming pitch that was the opposite of the bare, lifeless track in last week’s drawn first Test at Trent Bridge.
But England let India off the hook, the tourists doubling their total before stumps, with Rahane making a superb 103 in his maiden Test innings at Lord’s.
James Anderson led England’s attack with 4-60 in 23 overs in his first match since both he and Indian allrounder Ravindra Jadeja were charged with disciplinary offences under the International Cricket Council’s code of conduct for an alleged clash at Trent Bridge.
Both players must wait on the verdict of ICC judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis, a retired Australian judge, to discover if they will be banned from any matches in the rest of the five-Test series.
