Hyderabad: Ravindra Jadeja hit a half-century and celebrated the mark with his trademark sword dance. The raucous crowd at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium lapped up every bit of it. England's chances in the first Test had been cut to shreds. That indeed was the second day’s play.
India partied on Friday to overhaul the visitors’ modest first innings total of 246 and take a huge lead of 175 runs by close of play. With three wickets in hand and Jadeja batting on a sturdy 81 (7x4, 2x6), they would fancy 50-odd more before busting Ben Stokes & Co.
India’s robust 421 for 7 was built on potent partnerships down the middle. K. L. Rahul and Shreyas Iyer raised 64 for the fourth wicket before Rahul put on 65 for the fifth with Jadeja, who then was involved in a 68-run stand for the sixth with K. S. Bharat (41) and an unbroken stand of 63 for the eighth with Axar Patel, who is batting on a steady 35.
England captain Stokes pressed in Joe Root’s off-spin in the first over of the day and could have been briefly mulling his other options when overnight batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal thumped the second ball straight back to the boundary. Two balls later, the Indian opener tried to repeat the shot but couldn’t quite get hold of it to be out caught and bowled for an entertaining 80.
Debutant Tom Hartley got his first international wicket, that of BCCI’s Best Shubman Gill (23), caught by Ben Duckett at midwicket, in his 15th over.
Stokes brought in pacer Mark Wood and K. L. Rahul got some wood on the ball, sending him for three boundaries in that over.
The first session belonged to India. They scored at a fast clip — 103 while losing two wickets in 27 overs, none of which was a maiden. At 222 for 3, the hosts were just 24 adrift of the visitors’ total.
The English struck soon after the break. Shreyas (35) fell in the third over after lunch, hitting straight to Hartley in the deep as he tried to ramp up a big one against leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed.
Soon, Rahul launched into Rehan for a couple of sixes, the second of which was cheered wildly — India had surpassed England first innings score with that one. The 31-year-old looked set for his ninth Test century but could not quite get hold of a Hartley long-hop and holed out to Rehan in the deep. Rahul’s 123-ball 86 was punctuated with eight boundaries and two sixes.
At the other end, Jadeja kept jumping out of his crease to unpack some shots that raced around the ground. He survived on 17 after a successful DRS challenge on being given out caught at forward short leg off left-arm spinner Jack Leach. He also had another LBW decision overturned when on 49 with a DRS before pushing Root through cover for three runs to bring up a cherished half-ton that weighed down the opposition.
