By: Tarish Bhatt
The Indian team has a very long distance to travel to avoid the follow-on. But, they have good a decent start from the openers. Gautam Gambhir and Murali Vijay ensured that they see off the remaining overs of the day.
Both Gambhir and Vijay looked solid during their 22-over long stay on Day 2. They sent a message loud and clear that England bowlers need to work really hard to bowl out the Indian batsmen in these conditions.
“I thought there was good spin for us. A bit of reverse as well,” Moeen Ali said after the day’s play. “I think the slower balls spun a bit more than the rest, but the build up to that ball has to be on the money as well.”
“Patience is something Saqi (Saqlain Mushtaq) talks about a lot, we need to be patient,” he added.
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When the stumps were called, the Indian team was at 63/0, trailing by a massive margin of 474 runs. Gambhir is batting at 28, while Vijay is unbeaten at 25. These two showed that the pitch is still good to bat.
Earlier, England got bundled at 537 in their first innings. Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes struck centuries for the visitors. Stokes, in particular, stitched a number of partnerships with the lower-order.
Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers for India, and finished with three wickets. Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin took two each, while Amit Mishra ended with just one.
