London, July 22: A bright and sunny second day of the first Test saw Praveen Kumar swing the ball to claim his first five-for and Kevin Pietersen score his third double century after surviving a few close calls early on at Lords.

After Pietersen registered his double ton, England declared their first innings with the score on 474 for the fall of eight wickets. Put in to bat as the day drew to an end, the Indian openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund played cautiously. The visitors were on 17 runs with all wickets intact at stumps on Day 2.

Earlier, India were without Zaheer Khan who suffered a hamstring injury on Day 1 after claiming two wickets. The absence of their strike bowler meant that the other three bowlers - Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh - would have to go the extra mile. Handing his gloves to Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni himself bowled a few overs to lend a helping hand to his pacers.

Playing his first match at the Mecca of cricket, Kumar was the pick of the bowlers. His first wicket of the day was Jonathon Trott (70 runs) in the first session which yielded 90 runs. The session also saw the usually dependable Rahul Dravid miss half-chances and grass the ball which helped Trott and Kevin Pietersen reach their respective fifties.

In the post-lunch session, MS Dhoni bowled the first few overs to give his pacers respite before he handed them the new ball. The Indian skipper gave Pietersen a few scares. He survived a close lbw call off the first ball from Dhoni and later a caught behind – the latter being a decision that umpire Billy Bowden had to reverse. After a shaky start in the second session, Pietersen reached his century with a boundary, his fifth at Lords.

Back in the attack with the new ball in hand, Praveen Kumar was in his element and claimed the wickets of Ian Bell (45 runs) and Eoin Morgan (0 run) in the same over. A low diving catch by Dhoni off Kumar saw the back of Bell who missed out on a well deserved half-century. Ian Bell, who came to the crease at the fall of Trott, was involved in a 110-run partnership with Pietersen.

Matthew Prior, who had come in at the fall of Morgan’s wicket, scored 71 off 93 balls before he edged an outswinger from Kumar to the wicketkeeper. He dismissed Stuart Broad off the very next ball to complete his first five-wicket haul in only the fifth Test match of his career.

The England batsmen quickened the scoring rate in the last session of the day to score 169 runs. Suresh Raina, who came in to bowl towards the end of the day, claimed the wicket of Graeme Swann. Tremlett then joined Pietersen in the middle and scored four runs before England declared their first innings. Pietersen remained unbeaten on 202 runs and reached a personal landmark of 6000-runs in Test cricket at the end of England’s innings.

Brief scores (At end of Day 2): England 1st innings 474/8 in 131.4 overs decl.(Kevin Pietersen 202, M Prior 71, Praveen Kumar 5/106), India 1st innings 17/0 in 6 overs (Gautam Gambhir 7, Abhinav Mukund 8)