England's lower order come out fighting

England 487 India 130-3

Following a tough, cagey and attritional first day to this Test series, where England and India weighed each other up like boxers in the early rounds of a fight, the home side decided that day two was the time to start landing some heavier and more telling blows.

In perfect cloudless conditions and during a compelling day's cricket here yesterday, it was the lower order batting of England's Andrew Flintoff, Craig White and Simon Jones who first moved the home side into a strong position. Scoring at almost a run a ball they ensured that the graft and perseverance of their captain on the first day was not wasted, and did most to guarantee that the day was memorable for the cricket well as the weather.

After posting the daunting total of 487, England then took three wickets in the final session, the last two of which fell in the last couple of overs, to move well ahead of India on points in this game. Hussain will be delighted to have dismissed two of the tourists' highly talented top six but will be well aware of the dangers that still face his side as they attempt first to prevent India reaching the follow-on target of 288.

England did not have things entirely their own way during the third entertaining session of the day. Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid played their part by scoring at almost four runs an over in a robust partnership of 126. These two made light of the early loss of Wasim Jaffer, who was bowled in Matthew Hoggard's opening over, and appeared to be taking the visitors safely to the close of play until Sehwag on 84, unfortunately played the ball on to his stumps via his left boot, off the left-arm spin of Ashley Giles, who was bowling over the wicket.

England's day was made complete by Flintoff dismissing the nightwatchman, Ashish Nehra, lbw in the day's last over. However, with the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman still to come, Hussain will know that there is still a long way to go in this game and a lot of hard work ahead for his bowlers. Today's morning session is vital. England need to make early inroads while their bowlers are fresh and the batsmen once again get used to these comfortable batting conditions.

England began the day with their noses just in front after Hussain's heroic efforts yesterday but for the second day in a row got off to the worst possible start. Alec Stewart fell in an almost identical fashion to Michael Vaughan 24 hours earlier when he was leg before to Zaheer Khan without adding to his overnight score.

This brought that brute of a man, Flintoff, to the crease. Built like a second row forward and with about as much finesse, he made a nervy start that gave no indication of the fun that lay ahead. But after his first scoring shot, a clip through square leg for four, the Lancashire all-rounder never looked back and tucked into India's tiring attack.

After smashing Nehra's next ball for four the big fella then turned his attention to the left-arm seam of Zaheer. Flintoff's weakness outside off-stump is also his strength when he gets going as two crashing boundaries through the covers highlighted. One of these was hit with such ferocity that Sourav Ganguly, India's captain, thought it would be in the best interests of him and his side if he tactically failed to interrupt its path to the boundary.

Anil Kumble, who tormented Flintoff during the winter was immediately brought on but even he failed to stem the flow of runs as 11 were taken of his first over. Enjoying the view from the other end was Hussain, who seemed happy to let a colleague grab the limelight. There was an element of revenge about the way Flintoff went after Kumble and he would have taken great pleasure in clubbing the leg-spinner for a straight six to bring up his 50 in 57 balls.

England's other moment of joy before lunch was when Hussain passed 150 for only the second time in his Test career. This innings was an outstanding effort but his dismissal, along with that of Flintoff just before lunch, once again put the game in the balance.

Following the loss of Giles just after the break England, on 390 for 8, were in danger of failing to post the score needed to put India's outstanding batting line-up under pressure. Then Jones entered the arena and, showing no sign of nerves with the bat, proceeded to have a whale of a time. Showing the brashness of youth, the left-hander coolly decided to smash India's best bowler, Zaheer, straight back over his head into the Pavilion for six with his second shot.

Appearing totally at home and with 30,000 spectators lapping it up, he cut, carved and slogged India's hapless bowlers all around the park for a sparkling 43-ball 44. A symbol of his success was a rare smile from the normally unemotional England coach, Duncan Fletcher.

This was not the last of the entertainment though because Craig White, who had been quietly chipping away himself, opened his shoulders and struck a few lusty blows. It was surprising that it took the Yorkshire all-rounder only 66 balls to reach his half-century.

The performance of Jones with the bat whetted everyone's appetite for when he came on to bowl after 14 overs. Gaining a huge cheer from the crowd, each delivery was followed by a look at the huge TV screen to see how fast this tear-away Glamorgan man was bowling. He passed 90mph twice in his seven overs but failed to trouble India.

Lord's scoreboard

Second day; England won toss

ENGLAND ­ First Innings

(Overnight: 257 for 4)

*N Hussain c Ratra b Agarkar 155

457 min, 331 balls, 25 fours

ÝA J Stewart lbw b Zaheer Khan 19

78 min, 65 balls, 1 four

A Flintoff c Ratra b Agarkar 59

86 min, 62 balls, 10 fours, 1 six

C White st Ratra b Kumble 53

124 min, 75 balls, 4 fours, 1 six

A F Giles b Nehra 19

32 min, 26 balls, 3 fours

S P Jones c Dravid b Kumble 44

47 min, 43 balls, 7 fours, 1 six

M J Hoggard not out 10

38 min, 34 balls, 2 fours

Extras (b11, lb11, w2, nb7) 31

Total (587 min, 142.2 overs) 487

Fall (cont): 5-263 (Stewart), 6-356 (Flintoff), 7-357 (Hussain), 8-390 (Giles), 9-452 (Jones).

Bowling: Nehra 30-4-101-1 (nb5, w2) (5-1-11-0, 3-1-9-0, 6-0-18-0, 3-0-8-0, 3-1-2-0, 3-1-10-0, 3-0-21-0, 4-0-22-1); Zaheer Khan 36-13-90-3 (6-4-5-1, 7-2-21-1, 5-0-20-0, 10-5-18-1, 1-0-4-0, 5-1-17-0, 2-1-5-0); Agarkar 21-3-98-2 (4-0-22-0, 3-0-10-0, 1-1-0-0, 2-0-13-0, 1-0-4-0, 1-1-0-0, 7-1-31-2, 1-0-13-0, 1-0-5-0); Kumble 42.2-9-128-3 (15-7-31-1, 7-0-24-0, 5-1-6-0, 4-0-25-0, 2-0-8-1, 9.2-1-34-2); Ganguly 3-1-16-0 (nb1) (one spell); Sehwag 10-0-32-1 (nb1) (6-0-17-1, 4-0-15-0).

Progress: Second day: 300: 416 min, 102.4 overs. 350: 459 min, 111.2 overs. Lunch: 372-7 (White 5, Giles 10) 116 overs. 400: 511 min, 122.4 overs. 450: 546 min, 130.2 overs. Innings closed: 3.25pm.

Hussain 50: 168 min, 128 balls, 9 fours. 100: 255 min, 192 balls, 17 fours. 150: 428 min, 312 balls, 25 fours.

Flintoff 50: 81 min, 57 balls, 9 fours.

White 50: 113 min, 66 balls, 4 fours, 1 six.

INDIA ­ First innings

Wasim Jaffer b Hoggard 1

3 min, 4 balls

V Sehwag b Giles 84

149 min, 96 balls, 10 fours, 1 six

R S Dravid not out 33

158 min, 115 balls, 5 fours

A Nehra lbw b Flintoff 0

12 min, 8 balls

Extras (b4, lb5, nb3) 12

Total (for 3, 162 min, 36.4 overs) 130

Fall: 1-2 (Wasim Jaffer), 2-128 (Sehwag), 3-130 (Nehra).

To bat: S R Tendulkar, *S C Ganguly, V V S Laxman, ÝA Ratra, A B Agarkar, A Kumble, Zaheer Khan.

Bowling: Hoggard 8-2-23-1 (3-0-15-1, 5-2-8-0); Flintoff 7.4-4-8-1 (nb1) (4-2-6-0, 3.4-2-2-1); Giles 8-1-45-1 (4-0-28-0, 4-1-17-1); Jones 7-0-25-0 (nb2) (2-0-5-0, 5-0-20-0); White 6-2-20-0 (one spell).

Progress: Second day: 50: 55 min, 12.4 overs. 100: 120 min, 27 overs.

Sehwag 50: 90 min, 57 balls, 6 fours, 1 six.

Umpires: R E Koertzen (SA) and R B Tiffin (Zim).