Ganguly majesty marred by wrongful dismissal

India 302-8 v England

Watching men work hard in the middle of a cricket ground is what spectators pay up to £47 a ticket to do at Test matches. The endeavour and hours of toil these people put in for their benefit allow them to leave the arena feeling they have had their money's worth.

However, when it is the Nottinghamshire groundstaff who are the ones more deserving of a pint at the close of play than the players – who, on the whole, had a relaxing day sitting in the warmth of their dressing-room – one cannot help but have sympathy for these customers who choose to spend their hard-earned cash on cricket.

On a rain-ruined day where only 25 overs of play were possible, between morning showers and the evening gloom, this second Test match moved forward, but not at a pace to suggest either side will leave here victorious.

As at the end of the first day, this game is in the balance and while England took three good wickets yesterday, India scored 92 useful runs. Only when the visitors have their turn to exploit these helpful bowling conditions will we get a true reflection of the competitiveness of India's total.

Out of the two captains, Sourav Ganguly will be the happier with 302 runs on the board, even though his disappointment at wrongly being given out by the umpire Russell Tiffin was apparent to everyone in the near full-house crowd. For his reaction, Ganguly was spoken to by the match referee, Clive Lloyd, but no action was taken.

The "Prince of Bengal", as he is known in India, looked majestic as he tucked into England's bowlers who once again failed to get enough balls in the danger area – on a good length and threatening the stumps. If England's plan was to bomb Ganguly with short-pitched bowling it did not appear to be working as he ducked and swayed out of the way of bouncers, which were plentiful, then drove and cut anything short, wide or overpitched.

Looking determined and confident, Ganguly appeared set to score his second Test hundred at this venue. That was until Matthew Hoggard forced him to play a flick sort of hook shot at another short ball aimed at his body. The ball clipped his forearm guard and looped up to Alec Stewart, whose appeal got a positive response from the umpire.

Another player to benefit from his short time in the middle was the Durham fast bowler Stephen Harmison. After a nervy and indifferent introduction to Test cricket on Thursday the gangly right-armer, to the delight of his team-mates as well as himself, picked up his first Test wicket. As at Lord's 11 days ago Ajit Agarkar was making a nuisance of himself by cutting and carving with effect at anything outside his off stump. Several times Nasser Hussain watched the ball fly frustratingly just out of the reach of his five diving slip fielders before he put the seldom-seen fly slip in position 20 yards from the boundary at third man.

Having seen off seven overs with the second new ball, Agarkar was unable to resist another ball in his slot. He cut hard, the ball flew off the top edge to the well-positioned Mark Butcher, who took an excellent diving catch to the joy of not just Harmison, but the England captain too. This was not Harmison's last success, as he then ruined the debut of the 17-year-old Parthiv Patel by dismissing him for a duck.

This was a more typical dismissal for the 6ft 4in fast bowler as he managed to get a ball to bounce steeply at the diminutive wicketkeeper. All Patel could do was watch the ball fly of the edge of his bat to the hands off Andrew Flintoff at second slip. This was Flintoff's second reason to celebrate after getting rid of the dangerous VVS Laxman earlier in the day.

Scoreboard

India won toss

INDIA – First innings
(Overnight: 210 for 4)

*S C Ganguly c Stewart b Hoggard 68
V V S Laxman c Key b Flintoff 22
A B Agarkar c Butcher b Harmison 34
P A Patel c Flintoff b Harmison 0
Harbhajan Singh not out 13
Zaheer Khan not out 1

Extras (b1, lb7, w2, nb1) 11

Total (for 8, 407 min, 91 overs) 302

Fall (cont): 5-218 (Laxman), 6-285 (Agarkar), 7-287 (Patel), 8-295 (Ganguly).

To bat: A Nehra.

Bowling: Hoggard 31-10-82-3 (w2) (10-4-17-2, 5-2-14-0, 1-0-2-0, 9-2-33-0, 1-0-3-0, 5-2-13-1); Cork 11-3-45-1 (4-1-20-0, 4-1-12-0, 1-0-4-1, 2-1-9-0); Harmison 19-7-53-2 (4-4-0-0, 10-3-33-0, 2-0-5-0, 3-0-15-2); Flintoff 23-5-68-1 (9-2-21-0, 5-1-16-0, 9-1-31-1); White 7-0-46-1 (nb1) (2-0-19-0, 4-0-18-1, 1-0-9-0).

Progress: Second day: rain delayed start until 2.20pm. 250: 336 min, 76.2 overs. New ball taken after 80 overs at 264 for 5. Tea: 287 for 7 (Ganguly 68) 89.3 overs. 300: 406 min, 90.4 overs. Rain stopped play 4.38pm.

Ganguly's 50: 161 min, 99 balls, 8 fours.

ENGLAND: M P Vaughan, R W T Key, M A Butcher, *N Hussain, J P Crawley, ÝA J Stewart, A Flintoff, C White, D G Cork, S J Harmison, M J Hoggard.

Umpires: R E Koertzen (SA) and R B Tiffin (Zim).

Television replay umpire: J W Lloyds.

Match referee: C H Lloyd.