Kevin Pietersen and Bell Record Partnership

Bell made 181 and Kevin Pietersen finished unbeaten on 175 - his century, the fourth event of the summer as England closed on 457-3. Both were on 150 in the last hour and passed Graham Gooch and Allan Lamb partnership of 308 against India at Lord's in 1990 and displayed upright England seventh against any team. It was particularly annoying to the Indian side, who had dominated the opening day, significantly improved visualization bowling and fielding. They took the first wicket with the fifth ball of the day when Alastair Cook pushed lazily Ishant Sharma and edged to Virender Sehwag first slip for 34th. England did not score a run until the last ball of the fourth over, Andrew Strauss scoring particularly difficult to find. The captain has added only two runs to his overnight 38 of 32 balls before floating vaguely in his bat at a ball through the holes and MS Dhoni Sreesanth.