England skipper Joe Root scored his fifth Test ton and his third as skipper to propel England to a mammoth 555/ 8 at stumps on Day 2. They added 292 runs for the loss of five wickets in the day’s play thereby dominating two successive days of Test cricket. Meanwhile, India fought back late in the day with four wickets in the final session. More about the day 2 report of the first Test in detail below.
Joe Root (218) was accompanied by Ben Stokes (82) on the morning of day 2 as England looked to build on the overnight score. The duo started scoring at a good click as India failed to take a wicket in the first session of the day’s play. England went onto lunch at 355/3 in 119.0 overs with Joe Root getting past his 150 and Stokes getting fast his half-century.
Fifth Double Ton For Joe Root, Third AS England Skipper
In the second session, Stokes perished for 82 with Shabaz Nadeem finally getting rid of him. England by then reached 387 and was inching closer to 400. Root at the other end, was going strong. Upon Stokes’ dismissal, Ollie Pope (34), who was added onto the squad later joined his captain. He played a patient knock and added 86 with his skipper. In the process, England skipper Joe Root went past the 200-run mark with a stylish six to Ravichandran Ashwin. Root’s partnerships with Dom Sibley on day one and Stokes and Pope on day 2 well and truly frustrated the Indians who managed to pick up just one wicket in the sesion.
India came back through Ravichandran Ashwin in the final session. He trapped Pope for 38 ending the 86-run stand with Root. England were 473 at that point. Shabaz Nadeem struck gold for India as he dismissed Joe Root for 218 finally ending his 377 ball stay in the crease. Ishant Sharma came back into the attack eyeing for three wickets to get to 300 Test wickets.
In the 170th over of the England innings, Sharma struck twice of successive deliveries to dismiss Jos Buttler (30) and Jofra Archer (0). England thus lost four wickets for 52 runs after the fall of Pope’s wicket on 473. In the final 10 overs of the day’s play England scored just 27 runs ending on 555/8 at stumps. Ishant, Ashwin and Nadeem picked up two wickets each as Sundar has yet another wicketless day
Despite having a good session of play post-tea, the Indian bowlers were guilty of bowling way too many extras. There were a total of 19 no-balls bowled by the Indian bowlers in the first two days and total 37 extras conceded. Bumrah and Nadeem bowled six no-balls each, while Ishant bowled five.
Brief scores: England 555/8 (Joe Root 218, Dominic Sibley 87, Ben Stokes 82; Ishant Sharma 2-52) vs India
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