Live commentary, scorecard and stats I Mike Atherton's analysis I Did Collingwood get the worst umpiring decision of the year? I Winning the toss could yet prove England's saving grace

What were your impressions of the opening day's play?

I think India have probably more than shaded it with the wicket of Andrew Strauss late on.

Taking five wickets on that pitch is a pretty good effort because it was a flat old pitch. Obviously at 164-1 England were eyeing something substantial, but India have come back well in the second half of the day and are probably the happier of the two teams.

Given their lack of preparation and the disrupted nature of their build-up, would England have taken this?

No. They would certainly have taken winning the toss and batting first and reaching 164-1 in the manner they did, but I don't think they will be satisfied with 229-5.

Strauss obviously made a terrific century, which has really come to England's rescue today. I suppose Paul Collingwood got a bit of a stinker, he was unlucky to be given out by Billy Bowden when the ball has quite clearly missed glove and bat, but on the other hand, Kevin Pietersen played eccentrically and got out when he was well-set. In the end I think five wickets down is just one too many from England's point of view.

What kind of total do you think England need to be aiming for on this pitch?

Well 400 is a bog standard target batting first in India. That's almost a minimum for England especially given the way the pitch has played. So they will need runs from Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Prior and contributions from the others because they need to try and get as many as they can.

The India seamers have cause problems with the old ball do you expect that to continue tomorrow?

Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma are very dangerous and skilful with the old ball and spinners like Harbhajan Singh and Mishra are very dangerous against the tail end. So if India get wickets early tomorrow morning with the new ball due, you could see them wrapping things up fairly quickly.

But England have Flintoff, who played very calmly here tonight, and Prior, who has a Test average of 40. So the onus is really on those two to get England up towards something that could be considered a decent total.

Do you think from what we have seen today there is hope for England's bowlers?

Definitely, but only provided they are given enough runs to play with.

There is no doubt this pitch is going to spin more and more as the game progresses, and there was also some bounce there for Harbajan. I would have thought by days four and five this is going to be a spinner's delight.