A day which looked like lost for India turned into the one to remember. After dominating with the ball, the Indian cricket team badly struggled with the bat on the second day of the first Test against England on Thursday. While the top order fell like a house of cards, Virat Kohli held the nerve and played a saviour inning, proving the point that he just wanted to take the team forward in every situation.
The Indians lost 6 wickets in the first two sessions and were reduced to 160 by the team break. But the aggressive skipper kept his head as cool as ever and withstood the brutal English bowling attack. After 4 years, he took the centre stage in English and thrashed his previous records in an unperturbed manner.
At one point it seemed the Indian inning might end even before crossing the 200-run mark but Kohli’s fearless batting and 22nd Test hundred took India to 274. Kohli ended up scoring 149 runs off 225 balls, hitting 22 boundaries and the first six of the Test series.
After Pandya’s (22) dismissal, Ashwin remained the last Indian batsman to score in double digits. He scored 10 runs off 15 balls before falling prey to James Anderson in the 51st over.
Though the tail-enders didn’t ad much to the team total but played a big role in supporting their skipper to get his hundred which ultimately left India trailing by 13 runs.
Surprisingly, the 10th wicket partnership between Kohli and Umesh turned out to be the highest in the entire Indian inning. The duo added 57 runs for the last wicket here Umesh’s contribution was of just 1 runs and he remained unbeaten.
Kohli’s wicket came in the 76th over which was also the end of the Indian innings. India posted 274 in the first innings.
Talking about the English bowling attack, after the attacks from Sam Curran and Ben Stokes, veteran speedster Jimmy Anderson struck twice in the 3rd session. He removed Ashwin and Shami (2) while Adil Rashid, whose Test recall created a huge controversy in the English cricket fraternity, claimed 2 scalps including Virat.
After India’s wrap up, England openers – Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings came to start the second innings with a lead of 13 runs.
Ashwin continued troubling the hosts as he once again dismissed Cook, that too, just like the previous innings. But this time, the former England captain departed on a 14-ball duck.
The game concluded with England putting 9/1 on the board.
Brief Score:
1st Test Day 2: England 1st innings 287; India 1st innings 274 (V Kohli 149; S Curran 17-74-4);
England 2nd Innings 9/1, lead by 22 runs (K Jennings 5; R Ashwin 1.4-5-1) at stumps