India fight back after Gough strikes

India's old firm were today steering them towards a competitive total in the day-night encounter with England after Darren Gough had disrupted their hopes of another quickfire start to the innings.

Having won the crucial toss and deciding to bat first - condemning England to the difficult job of replying in dusk conditions under the lights at Chester-le-Street - India were hoping to make use of a good batting wicket to set a daunting total.

Instead they suffered the loss of three early wickets, prompting Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, two of their most experienced batsman, to rebuild the innings with a determined 64-run partnership.

Their efforts helped India reach 116 for three at the halfway stage of their innings with Tendulkar moving ominously onto 25 while Dravid, who has been used as a makeshift wicketkeeper during the tournament, was unbeaten on 35.

Expecting to see something of a boundary spree, the capacity 18,000 crowd were given the sight of a rejuvenated Gough running in as an alternative as the Yorkshire fast bowler continued his remarkable comeback from a knee operation.

Ruled out for virtually all the NatWest Series by England just over a week ago after suffering a setback in his recovery programme, Gough responded by claiming three for 45 and hitting the winning runs during Tuesday's memorable three wickets victory at Headingley.

He followed that by striking first ball today when he trapped Indian captain Sourav Ganguly leg before and then ended Dinesh Mongia's threatening innings nine overs later.

In between, Sussex fast bowler James Kirtley bore the brunt of the punishment and conceded 29 runs in his first four overs and also delivered a no-ball and two wides during his expensive first spell.

But he also removed dangerous strokemaker Virender Sehwag, who was superbly caught by Marcus Trescothick at mid-on driving on the up after scoring 16 off only 19 balls.

Once Mongia fell, caught at mid-wicket by Andrew Flintoff attempting to whip Gough off his legs, England looked to have gained an important advantage only for Tendulkar and Dravid to demonstrate their vast experience.