1st Test: Bumrah, Ashwin, Jadeja Lead India’s Fightback As England Trail By 18 Runs

1st Test: Bumrah, Ashwin, Jadeja lead India’s fightback as England trail by 18 runs (Image Source: IANS)

Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium: Jasprit Bumrah breathed life into the first Test with a masterly spell of reverse-swing while Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took a scalp each to lead India’s fightback as England trail by 18 runs after reaching 172/5 in 42 overs at tea on day three.

At the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, India were pushed on the backfoot in the morning session by England’s attacking play. But post lunch, they bounced back with four big scalps to be right back at the top of the game in a fascinating session. For England, Ollie Pope holds the key by being 67 not out, his first Test fifty in India, with Ben Foakes giving him company on two not out.

The start of the second session saw Bumrah trap Ben Duckett lbw with an in-ducker, which if India have reviewed, would have given them a breakthrough. Pope continued his good work by taking two fours off Ashwin, followed by Duckett fetching two boundaries off Bumrah.

But the fast-bowler had the last laugh by getting an inswinger to nip back in and go past Duckett trying to drive away from the body to send the off-stump on a cartwheel ride. The crowd went berserk as Bumrah was pumped up in his celebrations of dismissing Duckett.

Bumrah was at his lethal best - reversing the ball both ways and also bowled a slower ball to nearly dismiss Pope. Eventually, his inswinger trapped Joe Root lbw, opening further floodgates for India to make inroads through.

Pope and Jonny Bairstow, who countered Bumrah well by showing full face of the bat and took a leg-stump guard, looked comfortable with a flurry of boundaries. A ball from Jadeja in the 28th over gripped and turned past Bairstow's outside edge.

For the next ball, Bairstow thought it would spin away and shouldered his arms. To his horror, the ball came in with the arm and crashed into the off-stump. Pope got to his 12th Test fifty off just 54 balls by whipping a full-toss from Ashwin through mid-wicket for four.

Ashwin came back and bowled tirelessly to get his lines back after being unsettled by sweeps from Crawley and Duckett. He finally got his reward by getting the ball to turn past the bat and took out the off-stump of captain Ben Stokes. It was a phase were India didn’t concede a boundary in the last 65 balls of the session and tightened their grip on the match.

Brief Scores: England 246 and 172/5 in 42 overs (Ollie Pope 67 not out; Ben Duckett 47; Jasprit Bumrah 2-21, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-63) trail India 436 in 121 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 87, KL Rahul 86; Joe Root 4-79, Rehan Ahmed 2-105) by 18 runs