Rishabh Pant’s brilliant 58, followed by Ravichandran Ashwin’s 5/43 put India in a strong position at the end of Day 2 of the second Test against England here on Sunday.
Resuming at overnight score of 300/6, India’s last four wickets could muster only 29 runs as they were bowled out for 329. Pant remained not out on 58.
Moeen Ali was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets, while Olly Stone claimed 3/47.
England had a terrible start as Ishant Sharma trapped Rory Burns leg before wicket for a duck in the very first over.
Ashwin then got into the act by dismissing Dom Sibley for 16.
Axar Patel on his debut claimed the prize scalp of skipper Joe Root caught at short fine leg, leaving England reeling at 23/3.
Dan Lawrence’s stay in the middle ended when Ashwin dismissed him for 9. Ben Stokes was castled by a peach of a delivery from the off spinner.
Mohammed Siraj struck off his first ball of the day by dismissing Ollie Pope thanks to a brilliant one handed catch by wicket keeper Rishabh Pant.
All rounder Moeen Ali became Axar’s second victim as he fell for just 6. Ravi Ashwin claimed wickets of Olly Stone and Stuart Broad, as England were dismissed for 134 runs, giving India a massive 195 run lead.
Wicketkeeper Ben Foakes fought a lone battle as he remained unbeaten on 42.
Off spinner Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 5/43, while Ishant Sharma and Axar Patel claimed 2 wickets each.
India’s opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill got their team of to a solid start by adding 42 runs for the opening wicket, before the latter was trapped leg before wicket by Jack Leach for 14.
Rohit along with Cheteshwar Pujara saw the day through without any further alarms as the home side reached 54/1, with an overall lead of 249.
Stumps at the end of Day 2- India 329 and 54/1 (Rohit Sharma 25*) England 1st innings: 134 all out (Ben Foakes 42 not out, Ollie Pope 22, R Ashwin 5/43)