IND vs ENG: Zak Crawley-Ben Duckett solid opening stand, Ben Stokes' fifer put England on top at Old Trafford
MANCHESTER: In gloomy conditions at Old Trafford, India looked like they were going to do an encore of Gabba 2021. Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar's gritty 48-run partnership, against the new ball, started the fight on the second morning of the fourth Test.
Rishabh Pant, coming back after retiring hurt on Wednesday evening, added 17 runs with a fractured right foot in an exhibition of indomitable spirit. The circumstances leading to Thursday morning resembled India's tour of Australia in 2020-21. The characters in play were the same. It all seemed to be going according to plan when India reached 358 battling against the likes of
Ben Stokes
, who had spectacular figures of 5/72, and
Jofra Archer
's spell of 3/73. All that fight evaporated when the sun broke out as England openers Ben Duckett and
Zak Crawley
plundered the Indian bowling for 166 runs in 32 overs.
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That opening partnership laid the foundation for England to finish the day at 225/2 in 46 overs, closing in on India's first-innings score in double quick time. India did rediscover some of the fight, claiming two wickets in six overs through
Ravindra Jadeja
and debutant Anshul Kamboj's dismissals of Crawley and Duckett, for 84 and 94 respectively.
Jasprit Bumrah's late burst gave
Joe Root
a few nervy moments but it didn't yield any results. Captain
Shubman Gill
looked completely out of depth and appeared in no control of the proceedings.
Gill and his bowlers will be desperate to turn a corner early on Friday morning or else they could see the match and the series running away from them very quickly with Ollie Pope and Joe Root batting on 20 and 11 respectively. India's seam bowling looked the flattest in the most favourable conditions in the series.
How and why Rishabh Pant's England tour could come to an abrupt end due to toe fracture
It's safe to say they played their most ordinary cricket in the series after the last two sessions of the first Test in Leeds.
Bumrah was the only one who turned up looking at his usual best, but his good work was undone as Kamboj struggled to find any rhythm with the new ball. The nerves of playing a Test match kicked in and the 24-year-old Kamboj lost his line.
He was significantly down on pace as well in his first spell. Once he leaked a few boundaries, mostly on the leg-side, it became a template. Mohammed Siraj, on the back of two good Test matches, too leaked runs on both sides of the wicket.
Shardul Thakur, too, never settled down on a line and length. The outfield quickening up in the sun left the Indian bowlers with lesser room for error. It was like watching two different Indian teams on the field. When Archer removed Jadeja for 20 with the new ball at the score of 266/5 in the second over of the day, India's capitulation seemed a matter of time. The ball flew past the edges of the bats of Thakur and Washington.
Like they did in Gabba all those years ago, the duo batted sensibly to frustrate Stokes and Archer.
Stokes eventually worked out both of them, dismissing Thakur for 41 off 88 and Washington 27 off 90. And when Pant went about middling the balls he played, it seemed India had got the momentum going in their favour. India's resistance with the bat had managed to hurt England's ego in trying conditions.
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