A fighting hundred by Gary Ballance, 110, and a fifth-wicket partnership with Moeen Ali (32) of 98 helped England plough back into the lord’s Test on Day two as at stumps, they were 219 for 6 in reply to Indian’s 295 all out. liam Plunkrtt and MAatt Prior were batting on four and two respectively.
Earlier, India heaped up pressure on England and reduced them to 125 for four at tea, with seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar doing the bulk of damage striking thrice on day two of the second Test here on Friday.
Kumar (3-34) bowled an incisive spell on either side of lunch to leave the hosts’ top-order reeling after India had been bowled out for 295 runs in their first innings. England currently trail by 170 runs.
Gary Ballance (51*, 117 balls, 6 fours) and Moeen Ali (6*, 25 balls, 1 four) were at the crease, while India were unlucky not to have removed the former. In the 40th over of the innings, bowled by Stuart Binny (0-24), he was given a life by skipper MS Dhoni as he failed to grab an edge that went between him and Shikhar Dhawan at first slip. The batsman was on 32 at that time and went on to get his half-century in the 52nd over of the innings.
This was after Kumar had broken his lunch-stand with Ian Bell (16 runs, 56 balls, 2 fours) in the second session. They had added 20 runs in the morning and could only score 19 more before a short delivery surprised Bell and the ball kissed his gloves on its way to Ravindra Jadeja.
His dismissal brought first-Test centurion Joe Root to the crease and India were obviously desperate to see his back. Ishant Sharma (0-21) and Mohammad Shami (0-25) were deployed then but they didn’t get as much movement as Kumar. But to their credit they bowled well on an easing wicket and never let the pressure lift off.
Finally Jadeja (1-9) was introduced into the attack and he got the breakthrough needed. Root (13 runs, 50 balls) was adjudged lBW, albeit a big inside-edge which Australian umpire Bruce Oxenford failed to notice. Murali Vijay (0-2) bowled one over before tea as well.
In the morning session, Kumar removed Alastair Cook (10) first, caught behind by a diving Dhoni, as the English skipper’s horrible run with the bat continued. It was brilliant bowling from the Indian medium pacer who set up Cook beautifully in the previous over and then snapped him up with a huge out-swinger off the first ball of the 11th over.
He then struck a second blow four overs later with opener Sam Robson (17) playing a loose stroke outside off-stump and was safely pouched by Dhoni as well.
It was quite disappointing for the batsman for he failed to make good on a life given by Ajinkya Rahane at third slip, when the first-innings’ centurion dropped him off Shami in the 10th over. Robson was batting on 8 at that time and could only add 9 runs to his tally.
Earlier, Sharma (12*) and Shami (19) added just five runs to the overnight score of 290/9 in 10 balls. The innings ended when the latter was caught at first slip by Cook off Ben Stokes (2-40) in the 2nd over of the day and the 92nd of the innings. This was Cook’s 100th catch in Test cricket.
On day one, Rahane’s second Test ton had rescued India from a collapse after they were reduced to 145/7 at one stage. He scored 103 runs on a green-top wicket and added 90 runs for the 8th wicket with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (36) to guide his team to safety.