- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
ENGLAND and India shared the honours on the second day of the competitive fourth Test match at Kennington Oval, promising an absorbing dose of cricket over the weekend. The hosts came back well into the match after losing half their side cheaply but the tourists found themselves well balanced at stumps, leaving a lot of speculation over the outcome of the third day’s play.
England resumed from their overnight score of 53 for 3 in reply to India’s 191 in the first innings. Both the unbeaten batsmen – Dawid Malan (31 off 67) and Craig Overton (1 off 12) – were dismissed by Umesh Yadav and the hosts were reeling at 62 for 5. But Ollie Pope (81 off 159) and Jonny Bairstow (37 off 77) put on 89 important runs for the sixth wicket to take their side closer to the Indian target. England’s lower middle order delivered well with Moeen Ali (35 off 71) and Chris Woakes (50 off 60) giving Pope nice company to give the Three Lions a healthy lead over India. Woakes added 35 vital runs with No.11 James Anderson of which the latter contributed just one.
ALSO READ: Shardul Thakur propels India to 191 after top order collapse
England were eventually bowled out for 290, leading India by 99 runs.
India’s first Test win in England and an elephant and a horse
Among the Indian bowlers, comeback man Umesh Yadav was the most successful with three wickets for 76 runs while Jasprit Bumrah, who took both the openers on Day 1, and Ravindra Jadeja got two wickets each. Shardul Thakur, whose heroics with the bat helped India avert a major embarrassment on the opening day, got just one wicket for 54 while Mohammed Siraj also got one for 42.
India then started cautiously with their openers – Rohit Sharma (20 not out off 56) and KL Rahul (22 not out off 41) – playing out the remaining part of the day to put on 43 runs in 16 overs. It was a key phase of resistance from the two batsmen since the Indian middle order has been under immense pressure, both from the England bowlers in the ground and the critics outside.
Brief scores: India 199 & 43 for no loss (Rohit Sharma 20 not out, KL Rahul 22 not out) vs England 290 (Ollie Pope 81, Chris Woakes 50, Umesh Yadav 3 for 76)
