Close Indians 301 for 5 (Laxman 75, Ratra 50*, Jaffer 49) v Derbyshire The Indians made an iffy start to their tour match against Derbyshire, but recovered to finish the day at a comfortable 301 for 5. All their batsmen made double-figure scores, but the top three failed to pass 20 as India slumped to 62 for 3. The next four batsmen made amends, though, with VVS Laxman scoring a fluent 75 as the Indians took the honours in the last two sessions.

India won the toss and opted to bat, but Virender Sehwag, the only top-order batsman to fail at Headingley, missed out again, bowled offering no shot to Neil Gunter for 15 (21 for 1). Sanjay Bangar stayed at the wicket for over an hour in making 17, but fell when he edged an attempted drive off Jason Kerr and was caught at second slip (58 for 2). SS Das followed soon after, yorked by Mathew Dowman for 18, as India lost two wickets for four runs.

Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were rested for this match, but India's middle order was still strong enough to recover. Laxman added 102 with Wasim Jaffer, who was caught behind by Christopher Warn for 49. Ajay Ratra came in, and did his chances for the fourth Test no harm with an unbeaten 50. Laxman and Ratra added 69, before Laxman nicked one off Kerr for 75 (233 for 5).

Rahul Dravid and Ratra ensured that India lost no more wickets before the close of play. Dravid was not out on 40, continuing a rich vein of form that has brought him 385 runs from five Test innings.

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