Hyderabad: India’s Juggernaut rolled on as England’s Bazball cricket went for a snooze in the post-lunch session as they lost five wickets to the spinners, reducing them to 215/8 at Tea with Ben Stokes holding fort on Day 1 of the first Test at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Thursday.
As of now, the match stands evens-stevens as both the teams walked back for the second break, thinking they could have done more.
Jonny Bairstow (37 off 58, 5x4s) was cleaned up by Axar Patel’s ripper and Joe Root (29 off 60, 1×4) was lapped up by Jasprit Bumrah off a pre-empted sweep. Ben Foakes (4) jabbed at one sailing away from his body, straight into the hands of Srikar Bharat off Axar.
At 137/6, India might have sensed to run through the tail, but Stokes held the fort and permitted his partners to go for a whack.
Rehan Ahmed (13), Tom Hartley (23) and Mark Wood (7*) added useful runs, while Stokes hammered few boundaries.
At Tea, Stokes was batting on 43 off 66 balls.
After winning the toss, Stokes opted to bat first, and without any surprises, England hewned an attacking Bazball start. Crawley and Duckket took a liking to Mohammad Siraj who is playing his first Test in his hometown.
Duckett hammered 7 boundaries in his 35-run innings off 39 balls and Crawley played cautiously, scoring 20 off 40 balls as England raced to 50 off 66 balls.
India Captain Rohit Sharma introduced spin in the 9th over, with Jadeja getting a turn and Ashwin getting a bounce on his spin.
Not surprisingly, Ashwin struck in the 12th over, trapping Duckket lbw, but not before opting for a review. Three overs later, Jadeja had Pope caught by Rohit in the slips cordon for 1.
Three balls later, Ashwin removed Crawley who was caught at mid-off by Siraj who took a low catch as England went down from 55/0 to 60-3 in 21 balls.
India could have had the fourth wicket in the form of Root who tried to sweep Ashwin on his second ball, but the DRS came to his rescue showing that the ball had caressed his bat.
