Strauss’ half-century keeps India on guard in first session

Strauss,making a guest appearance for Somerset,won his much-anticipated first-round battle against left-arm swing bowler Zaheer Khan,who bowled eight overs without success on the first morning.

The left-hander rarely looked in trouble on a featherbed,smashing 16 fours during his 112 minutes’ stay at the crease.

Strauss had a couple of close calls though – when on 20 he was lucky to survive a LBW shout against Zaheer – and then wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha dropped him off leg-spinner Amit Mishra on 64.

The attacking batsman,with a history of being troubled by left-arm medium-pacers,and with just 27 runs from three Tests in the preceding series against Sri Lanka,was in his elements from the word go,hitting Zaheer for two fours.

He followed them up with a couple of pushes down the ground for boundaries and nearly always got value for his shots against the tourists who appeared to have lost interest after a while.

Strauss shifted gears after the first hour and smashed an erratic S Sreesanth for three fours after the medium-pacer switched his ends.

Two long-hops from the Kerala speedster were hit behind square for boundaries and one was guided off his pads to fine leg fence as Strauss reached his half-century with 11 fours from 63 balls.

Munaf Patel’s propensity to bowl at least one bouncer per over wasn’t such a good idea on this dead track and Strauss made full use of such deliveries.

After flicking and cover driving Mishra for boundaries,Strauss finally fell in the final over before lunch,edging a catch to Saha who made no mistake this time around.

The other opener,right-hander,Arul Suppiah almost went unnoticed before he drove Sreesanth down the ground for his first four after 16 overs of batting.

He was unbeaten on 17 at the break,with Nick Compton giving him company on six.

Earlier,Somerset won the toss and put the Indians in.

The visitors are missing skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni,VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh in the match.