England lose early wickets in chase

England lost both openers to successive RP Singh deliveries, in a faltering start to their reply to 280 for five against India at Lord's.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina's stand of 169 powered India to a competitive total, meaning England would have to bat well to take a NatWest Series-clinching 3-0 lead and stay on course for an 8-0 whitewash of the tourists across all formats this summer.

Much depended therefore on Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara, who reached 70 for three after 15 overs.

Craig Kieswetter failed to get enough on attempted inside-out hit and was well caught at wide mid-off, and then from the first ball of Singh's next over Alastair Cook holed out at extra-cover.

Jonathan Trott was unable to play a telling innings either, attempting to pull a ball that was far too full from Praveen Kumar and bottom-edging on to his stumps.

Dhoni (78no) had come to his team's rescue for the second successive match, allowing Raina (84) to play the role of chief aggressor which came from Ravindra Jadeja at The Oval last time.

India were never in the disarray they encountered on Friday, but nonetheless in need of revival when their captain and Raina joined forces.

The innings was curiously-paced, on a slow but even surface, very cautious initially as only nine runs came from the first five overs and again when rebuilding was required after two wickets twice fell quickly.

But once Raina and Dhoni got moving, England took plenty of punishment - not least Stuart Broad, who was unable to finish the final over after appearing to injure his right arm in delivery.