As the players walked off for lunch on day two, mathematically, England should have been bowled out and India batting by then, but the tourists find themselves sitting pretty at 450/6. It's safe to say England cannot lose the match from here. Let alone a 5-0 whitewash, India would do well to win this series from now, considering the way the last four sessions have played out.
India took the new ball finally, 13 overs after it was available, at the start of play. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav had a go at Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes, but there was no early breakthrough. Ali, stranded on 99 last evening, got to his hundred in the very first over of the day and then went ahead to crack three delightful boundaries in one Shami over. It was, thus, not very surprising when Kohli tossed the five-over-old ball to Ravichandran Ashwin in the sixth over of the day.
However, it was Shami who got India their first breakthrough of the morning – and it was an unbelievable dismissal. After playing so well for 212 deliveries, Ali inexplicably shouldered his arms to a Shami delivery from around the wicket that angled into the left-hander. The ball crashed into his off stump.
Ali's wicket would have been a welcome relief for India, but if the hosts thought they were finally into the tail, they were in for a shock as the highest run-scorer in Tests worldwide so far, Jonny Bairstow, walked to the middle to join Stokes. As the hour-mark approached on the second morning, the ball started to turn as Kohli switched to an all-spin attack. However, it made no difference to the two Englishmen. In fact, it spurred them to take on the bowlers more.
Bairstow struck two sixes in the V, and Stokes was also his usual attacking self, but keeping the ball on the ground and finding the gaps. The two brought up their 50-partnership in no time, as well as their own respective half-centuries. Between all of that, adding salt to India's wound, Wriddhiman Saha raised the dropped catches tally to five by spilling Ben Stokes's edge twice behind the sticks – one was a sharp chance, the other a regulation sitter.
With 10 minutes to go to lunch, Saha finally managed to hold on to one as Bairstow nicked a wide delivery from Shami. But with England just short of 450 at that point and still with four wickets in hand, it was too little too late.
Brief score:
England 450/6 (Joe Root 124, Moeen Ali 117, Ben Stokes 84*; Mohammed Shami 2/51, R Ashwin 2/138) vs India.
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