After spending the first day in the field, it was time for the Indians to have a bat under the bright sunshine at the County Cricket Ground in Derby. After batting for a day and 90 overs, they put up 341 on the board with five batsmen dismissed and one, Cheteshwar Pujara, retired on 81.
At the end of the second day’s play, the Indians had taken a 15-run lead over Derbyshire with Stuart Binny (81*) and Ajinkya Rahane (13*) the unbeaten batsmen.
MS Dhoni, who didn’t get to bat in the first practice match, against Leicestershire, had a decent hit in the middle and scored an attacking 46 off 56 balls. His knock was laced with four fours and a six. Ravindra Jadeja, who was dropped at first slip on a duck, eventually got out for 45.
Things didn’t begin too well for the Indians, as they lost both openers, Murali Vijay (6) and Shikhar Dhawan (6) inside the first 10 overs. While Shikhar edged one to the keeper off the bowling of right-arm pacer Mark Turner, Vijay was wrapped lbw by Ben Cotton.
Virat Kohli (36) and Cheteshwar Pujara took the Indian innings forward slowly but steadily before the former played a Cotton delivery on to his stumps.
The Derbyshire pacers were in good control, not giving the batsmen too many hit-me balls. However, there were a few fine shots that eased out of the bats of both of them, punctuating the silence with a mild applause from the stands.
As the game broke for Tea, Shikhar went to the indoor nets facility and had a few hits against the bowling machine.
