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When the English skipper and a couple of others play a pseudo-spinner of the calibre of yuvraj singh like the pitch is akin to a minefield, and the bowler is hurling hand-grenades, then, one wonders about the future of england in this test match. On a pitch which barely offered anything to the quicker bowlers till the ball had reached the age of my grand-dad, it was difficult to fathom the reason behind the slow run-rate that England scored at throughout the day; ending with 229/5 in their 90 overs. kevin pietersen may have learnt one lesson from Ricky Ponting by getting in Graeme Swann into the playing eleven, but was found wanting in the other strategic aspect as the tourists played into the Indian hands by not being aggressive enough with the bat.Getting back to the batsman Pietersen, it seemed like he had seen a ghost. Probably his own. Or probably he had witnessed a Martian who was trying to intimidate the living daylights out of him. Yuvraj, at best is a slow bowler who aspires to turn the ball as much as anil kumble did in sum total of his career, and yet, Pietersen probably had the spirit of a Darryl Cullinan get inside him and imagine shane warne at the other end. One can only say that it couldn’t get worse for Pietersen, and that he would come out a much better batsman against Yuvraj!zaheer khan’s post-tea spell was another matter altogether. He bowled like a man possessed; in other words, he bowled like he has been through out the last one year or saw. In fact, this form of Zaheer Khan has been witnessed ever since the English had the audacity to offer him some jelly-beans in one of the most condescending ways possible. The rest, as they say, was history – and geography and sciences all mixed in one – for the English. The story hasn’t changed one bit since that fateful evening at Trent Bridge, as Zaheer repeated the same dose again today. Bowling at a reasonably good pace, he had the most of the English batsmen groping around the red cherry like nobody’s business, and then capped it all off with two very important wickets of Ian Bell and Pietersen.In fact, if Pietersen could offer some solace to himself, then it must be in the form of the fact that he handled Zaheer Khan even worse than Yuvraj Singh! Pietersen’s misery was finally ended when he tried to hook one short delivery that took off and only managed to offer it back to Zaheer as a form of a return-gift.At this stage, it would be easy to say that the Indians hold the advantage. Somehow though, I still believe that a lot of cricket has yet to be played in this match before doling out predictions on the winner. With two spinners of reasonable quality in the English side, and the pitch seeming like it should assist their brand of bowling, things could interesting if England do manage to stretch their overnight score to around 350 to 375. On relative basis, the Indians do look to be in a stronger position than they were in at tea, and yet, the match is some distance away from being won.As the cliché goes, a crucial first session tomorrow on cards!