Manchester, July 24 Half centuries from Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley have put England in a commanding position after skipper Ben Stokes took his first five-wicket haul in eight years on day two of fourth Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test at Old Trafford on Thursday.
At stumps, England reached 225/2 in 46 overs and trail India by 133 runs. Stokes’ 5-72 helped England bowl out India for 358 – with Rishabh Pant coming out to bat and making a courageous 54 despite a fractured right foot - a knock that will be remembered for ages to come.
Duckett (94) and Crawley (84) then put on a superb opening partnership of 166 off 195 balls to rattle India - falling before reaching their respective centuries. But with Joe Root and Ollie Pope unbeaten on 11 and 20 respectively, England will be confident to get a big score and take a first innings lead.
The final session started with Crawley thumping three boundaries, before he and Duckett reached their fifties in 73 and 46 balls respectively. Despite Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja brought into the bowling attack, there was no stopping boundaries as Crawley continued to play his shots with immaculate ease.
India finally had a breakthrough on the last ball of the 32nd over when Crawley edged a turning ball from Jadeja and KL Rahul took a low catch at first slip, as he fell for 84 off 13 balls. Duckett also smacked three boundaries off Mohammed Siraj, before missing his century when he chased a short and wide delivery from Anshul Kamboj and nicked behind to wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel to give the pacer his first Test wicket.
Root and Pope then took the watchful route, with the former surviving an lbw appeal off Jasprit Bumrah due to the ball’s impact being outside of stumps. The duo ensured that England didn’t lose any more wickets in the last 30 minutes before the day’s play ended in their favour.
Brief Scores: India 358 in 114.1 overs (B Sai Sudharsan 61, Yashasvi Jaiswal 58; Ben Stokes 5-72, Jofra Archer 3-73) lead England 225/2 in 46 overs (Ben Duckett 94 not out, Zak Crawley 84; Ravindra Jadeja 1-37, Anshul Kamboj 1-48) by 133 runs.
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