Hyderabad: England stand at 172/5 against India after the end of the second session at tea break in the first Test match on day three at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday.
Ollie Pope (67*) and Ben Foakes (2*) are on the crease for England at Tea as the visitors still trail by 18 runs.
The second session on day three of the first Test match was even as both the English batters and the Indian bowling displayed a stellar performance.
Pacer Jasprit Bumrah made the first breakthrough of the second session after he dismissed Ben Duckett (47 runs from 52 balls) in the 19th over. The English opener was in full mood to hit boundaries but fell short infront of the Indian speedster.
Bumrah picked his second wicket after he removed Joe Root (2 runs from 6 balls) in the 21st over. After the Indian pacer scalped a few crucial wickets, it was time for the spinners to perform.
Ravindra Jadeja bagged his first wicket of the second inning after he dismissed Jonny Bairstow (10 runs from 24 balls) in the 28th over. Meanwhile, Ashwin’s third wicket came after he took Ben Stokes’ (2 runs from 12 balls) in the 37th over.
In the second session, England scored 83 runs. On the other hand, the hosts picked up 4 wickets. Meanwhile, Pope and Foakes will be looking forward to making a crucial partnership in the third session. Earlier in the day, England stood at 89/1, with Ben Duckett (38*) and Ollie Pope (16*) unbeaten on the crease at lunch.
Day three of the first Test match started with India at 421/7 with Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel on the crease, However, Joe Root’s fiery spell helped the visitors to take control of the game by breaking the crucial partnership of Jadeja-Axar.
In the third and fourth ball of the 120th over of India’s first inning, Root dismissed Jadeja (87 runs from 180 balls) and Jasprit Bumrah (0 runs from 1 ball) respectively. Root was looking for a hattrick in the game, but Mohammed Siraj did not give him the chance.
Even though Axar was on the crease, but he too fell short in front of Rehan Ahmed in the 121st over, ending India’s inning at 436 with a 190-run lead against England in Hyderabad.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett opened for the visitors later in the first session. However, Ashwin made the only breakthrough in the 10th over after he dismissed Crawley for 31 runs from 33 balls. Brief score: England 246 & 172/5 (Ollie Pope 67*, Ben Duckett 38, Zak Crawley 31; Ravichandran Ashwin 2-63) vs India 436 (Ravindra Jadeja 87, KL Rahul 86, Yashasvi Jaiswal 80; Joe Root 4-79).