Hyderabad, Jan 25: Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal led India’s response with a blazing unbeaten 76 off 70 balls as the hosts’ ended day one’s play in the first Test at 119/1 in 23 overs, trailing England by 127 runs after the spinners took eight wickets to bowl out the visitors’ for 246 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday.
Electing to bat first on a pitch which was dry from one end and green-ish in the middle, fans waited with bated breath to see England’s attacking style of playing Test cricket. They were great in patches – the opening partnership between Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett yielded 55 runs while Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow had a stand of 61 runs for the fourth wicket.
England’s first challenge of fronting up to Indian spinners in their Bazball era ended in favour of the visitors’. Eight England wickets fell to spin as they were left in spot of bother twice at 60-3 and 155-7. Stokes, the England skipper, brought up his 31st Test fifty after lunch, while making precious runs with the lower-order to take England past 200.
Three wickets each taken by Jadeja and Ashwin respectively, though the former was expensive due to coming in line of the Stokes onslaught. Axar Patel took two wickets, while fast-bowler Jasprit Bumrah also had two scalps.Stokes, coming back to action after a left knee surgery last year, proved that he still possesses of his famed fighting qualities, seen by hitting six fours and three sixes to hit 70 off 88 balls and lead a late counter-attack for England.He followed his all-familiar pattern of starting slow, before pressing the accelerator for entering a higher gear and clearing the boundary ropes with aggressive stroke-play, seen from him getting his last 53 runs off his final 36 deliveries.By stumps, Jaiswal had launched a stunning onslaught on England’s bowlers, particularly on debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley, to get a 47-ball fifty and continue his sparking start to Test cricket. (IANS)
