By: Tarish Bhatt
India gave a strong reply to England’s total, as the visitors failed to trouble them on a helpful Wankhede track. Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara anchored the Indian innings. India ended the day at 146/1, trailing by 254 runs.
Vijay and Pujara have stitched an unbeaten 107-run partnership for the second wicket. They played the English spinners really well, and were never troubled by either Moeen Ali or Adil Rashid.
The Indians lost just one wicket in KL Rahul. Ali castled the Indian opener when he tried to drive. Rahul (24), however, missed the ball altogether, and the ball disturbed his off-middle stump.
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Earlier, India bundled England on 400 in their first innings. They played really well, especially the lower-order, to post a healthy total. Keaton Jennings struck century, while Jos Buttler made a gritty fifty.
Both the Indian spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, bowled impressively. Ashwin finished with six wickets, while Jadeja ended up with four wickets.
“Difficult to find that length,” Ashwin said. “Difficult to bowl maidens here. Sometimes you can bowl a good ball, and it can be played off the back foot. Have to get the seam position right, the pace right.”
“A lot needs to go well on this surface,” he added. “I’d say Root (the best of his six wickets), I’ve been watching a lot of videos of him, he was getting out to Dan Piedt driving. Was visualising, I thought I was disciplined.”