Sreesanth leads India fightback

England collapsed to 298 all out on day two at Lord's before reducing India to 145-4.

Shantha Sreesanth led a superb fightback by India on the rain-shortened second day of the opening Test against England at Lord's.

The morning session was washed out but when play did get underway, England collapsed from 268-4 to 298 all out with Sreesanth claiming three wickets.

Wasim Jaffer then struck a half-century to lead the tourists out of some early trouble to 145-4 in their first innings, 153 runs behind, by the close.

James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom were both rewarded with a wicket for testing opening spells in seamer-friendly conditions.

Sidebottom (1-48) trapped makeshift opener Dinesh Karthik (5) plumb in front with an inswinger and Anderson (2-26) drew number three Rahul Dravid (2) into edging a late outswinger through to wicketkeeper Matt Prior.

Jaffer and third-wicket partner Sachin Tendulkar came together at 27-2 and shared a stand of 79 to repair the early damage.

Tendulkar, making a fourth appearance at Lord's 17 years after his first, went past his previous best score at the ground of 31 and also moved above Steve Waugh into third on the all-time list of Test run-scorers before Anderson made his second intervention of the day.

The Lancashire paceman - playing his first Test of the summer - won an lbw decision from umpire Steve Bucknor when Tendulkar (37) missed with an attempt to work a straight ball into the leg-side.

Jaffer had reached a typically elegant half-century from 100 balls but, following Tendulkar's dismissal at 106-3, his scoring slowed to a crawl.

The right-handed opener added just another eight runs from 56 balls before he became Chris Tremlett's maiden Test wicket late in the day.

Tremlett generated impressive bounce from his 6ft 7in frame and gained reward with a tumbling catch in his follow through when Jaffer (58) fended a steeply rising delivery from in front of his throat.

Sourav Ganguly (25no) and nightwatchman Rudra Pratap Singh (5no) made it safely through the final three overs as India reached the 7.30pm close at 145-4.

The prospects for play had looked bleak during the washed out morning session, with the heavy rain creating puddles on the outfield.

However, a change in the weather, coupled with the state-of-the-art drainage system at Lord's, meant play got started at 1.50pm.

England probably wished it had not as they promptly lost their last six wickets in the space of just 11.1 overs.

Dravid's decision to take the second new ball proved the catalyst for a clatter of wickets as India's trio of seamers all got among the wickets.

Rudra Pratap made the initial breakthrough by bowling nightwatchman Sidebottom (1) between bad and pad in the third over of the day.

Kevin Pietersen soon followed, although not before being reprieved by the third umpire when Indian wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni claimed a low one-handed catch from Rudra Pratap's fellow left-armer Zaheer Khan.

Pietersen began to make his way from the field before being urged to return by his colleagues on the dressing room balcony, who had seen that television replays showed the ball had bounced just short of Dhoni's outstretched glove.

The third umpire confirmed that view, although Pietersen (37) made little of his second chance by again edging behind in Zaheer's next over, this time giving Dhoni a regulation catch.

That was just the start of a sorry procession as England's hopes of a formidable first-innings score disappeared.

Sreesanth (3-67) claimed three lbw decisions from umpire Bucknor with full inswingers that proved too much for the lower order - Prior (1) and Tremlett (0) both departed in the 24-year-old's second over, while Monty Panesar (0) followed in the same fashion in his fourth.

Ian Bell - who hit two pleasant boundaries and pulled a six during his brief innings of 20 - was last out, edging Zaheer (2-62) back onto his stumps, to complete the collapse.