England hopes in the Ballance

Another Alastair Cook failure overshadowed Gary Ballance’s second Test century, against India at Lord’s yesterday.

Cook’s early exit apart, this was a serviceable day two of the second Test for the hosts — and better, thanks to Ballance, whose 110 underpinned England’s 219 for six in reply to India’s 295 all out.

“We lost a few wickets early on and to be fair they bowled well, but (Ian Bell) and I tried to hang in and scrap, thinking ’hopefully the runs will come later on’ and they did,” said Ballance. “It’s still a good pitch and if we can keep them in the field a bit longer we can get a good lead.”