Courtesy: BCCI
On Saturday, June 21, England made an impressive comeback into the first Test of the five-match series against India at Headingley in Leeds, starting with the captain Ben Stokes and Josh Tongue taking four wickets each with the ball. After managing to bowl out India for 471 runs in the first innings despite the visitors being at 430/3 at one stage in the first session on day two, England batting lineup batted quite impressively after a bit of a rain delay, scoring 209/3 in 49 overs with a hundred from Ollie Pope and a fifty from Ben Duckett.
The play on day two began with India on 359/3 in 85 overs in bright sunshine at Headingley in Leeds with their captain Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant taking their partnership forward. Pant went on to get his seventh Test hundred with a big six towards the cow corner region before celebrating it in style with the Sommersault celebration in the first session, while Gill kept the scoreboard moving from his end as well.
England managed to break the 209-run stand for the fourth wicket when Shubman Gill could only find Josh Tongue at deep square leg in his attempt to hit a six after scoring 147 off 227 with 19 fours and one six. It brought about a collapse in the Indian batting lineup, losing their last seven wickets for only 41 runs, getting bowled out for 471-run total in 113 overs.
Rishabh Pant scored 134 runs in 178 balls with 12 fours and six sixes before Josh Tongue trapped him in front of the stumps, while Karun Nair was dismissed for zero in four balls by Ben Stokes on his return to Test cricket after eight years. Following a rain delay, England’s innings began on a poor note as Jasprit Bumrah got Zak Crawley caught at first slip via Karun Nair for four runs.
It led to a 122-run stand between Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope, who were scratchy early in their innings before putting the pressure back on the Indian bowlers with their positive stroke play. Ravindra Jadeja dropped Ben Duckett quite early in his innings at backward point on the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah, which led to the left-hander getting 62 off 94 with nine fours before the same bowler got him to chop the ball on to his stumps.
Shortly after, Yashasvi Jaiswal put down Ollie Pope on the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah on 60 runs, which could have given the Indian pacer yet another wicket in his enterprising spell. Eventually, Pope managed to score his ninth Test hundred in 125 balls just before Joe Root lost his wicket to Jasprit Bumrah, finding Karun Nair at first slip, but in the last over of the day, he had Harry Brook dismissed only for the umpire to call it a no-ball, the third in four balls.
