Rain limited play to 6.2 overs on the second morning at Edgbaston, as England moved to 125 for 2, but the short passage of action was full of incident. Kevin Pietersen was at the centre of the two major moments as he was dropped for a third time, before leaving people diving for the Laws when he backed away at Mohammad Asif.
The controversial moment occurred as Asif ran in for the fifth ball of his 12th over and he was well into his delivery stride when Pietersen began walking towards square leg. The batsman is allowed to back away if he is distracted, but Pietersen then continued to play a shot and lobbed a gentle catch to mid-off. The umpire Marais Erasmus called dead ball moments before the ball was struck, but Salman Butt protested that it was too late.
Law 23.3.b (v) states: "Either umpire shall call "dead ball" when he is satisfied that for an adequate reason the striker is not ready for the delivery of the ball and, if the ball is delivered, makes no attempt to play it." It is that final part which raises questions about the decision.
Pietersen had already been given a far more conventional life before adding to his overnight total when he got an inside edge into his pad against Mohammad Amir which looped to gully. However, Umar Amin looked more interested in joining the appeal for lbw rather than catching the ball and it went to ground.
Asif will be wondering what he has to do to add to his wicket tally after yesterday seeing Jonathan Trott dropped at slip. It reached such levels of desperation that they wasted a review against Pietersen when he was struck on the pad well outside off stump and a long way down the crease.
Pietersen tried to combat the threat of the swing from Asif and Amir by using his feet, but Trott looked the far more secure as he played in a more sedate manner. He collected the second boundary of the short session when he guided Amir nicely wide of second slip.
