Manchester, July 23 After a wicketless opening session, England bounced back by removing India's openers and captain Shubman Gill to leave the tourists at 149/3 in 52 overs at tea on Day One of the fourth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series at Old Trafford here on Wednesday.
After making 78 runs in the opening session, India added 71 more runs to the total in the post-lunch session. But the visitors lost three wickets – with Chris Woakes, Ben Stokes, and Liam Dawson taking a scalp each, which means England got the session in their favour.
India will now hope that B. Sai Sudharsan (26 not out off 77 balls) and Rishabh Pant (three not out off eight balls) play long knocks to take them to safety at the close of day’s play. The session began with Yashasvi Jaiswal slashing and punching Brydon Carse for a brace of fours, before Woakes and England were finally rewarded for his persistence.
On the last ball of the 30th over, a back-of-the-length delivery from Woakes nipped away to take a thick outside edge off Rahul, who looked to punch away from the body, and Zak Crawley grabbed the catch at third slip, as the opener fell for 46, and an opening partnership of 94 came to an end.
Jaiswal went on to bring up a gritty 12th Test fifty, but fell just after the drinks break. Dawson got his first Test wicket on comeback, after eight years, on the seventh ball he bowled - Jaiswal looked to defend, but the ball caught his outside edge on forward defence and flew to Brook at first slip, as he fell for 58.
Dawson, included in place of an injured Shoaib Bashir, managed to keep Sudharsan quiet. Sudharsan could have been out on 20 if Jamie Smith hadn’t made a mess of the leg-side strangle off Stokes’ bowling.
But in his next over, Stokes’ turn to strike came when Gill shouldered arms to an in-ducker from him and was rapped on his pads. After being adjudged out by on-field umpire Rod Tucker, Gill decided to go up for a review, but replays showed the ball hitting the top of the off-stump, meaning that the India skipper walked off for 12, as Stokes and England found reasons to be happy after a wicketless first session.
Brief scores:
India 149/3 in 52 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 58, KL Rahul 46; Liam Dawson 1-21, Ben Stokes 1-24) against England
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