Root Misses Double Century, Siraj and Ishant On Fire As England Lead By 27 Runs

London: Joe Root missed the double century as he found himself standing alone on one End, but played captain’s innings with his solid century and helped England to take 27 runs lead in the first innings of the second Test match against India on the third day here on Saturday. England scored 391 in 128 overs. Root Came back to the dressing room with not out 180 runs. India had scored 364 runs in the first innings. Indian fast bowlers, Mohammed Siraj had four wickets and Ishant Sharma took three wickets.

Root batted like a rock as no Indian bowler was able to put pressure on him. He came to bat yesterday at number 4, when England was in trouble with 2/23, faced 321 balls and hit 18 fours.

England started the third day with an overnight score of 119 runs for the loss of three wickets. Joe Root was Not out on 48  and Jonny Bairstow was Not out 6. Both batted with determination and put on 121 runs for the 4th wicket and deprived India of any success in the first session. At lunch, England was in a comfortable position with 216 for 3 wickets on board. England lost two wickets between lunch and tea. First  Jonny Bairstow (57) gave a catch to Virat Kohli off Mohammed Siraj and with the second new ball, Ishant Sharma bowled Jos Buttler (23). Joe Root completed his very important and valuable century in 200 balls.

At the tea break, England were 5/ 314, with Joe Root and Moeen Ali were in the process of building another big partnership of the day. Soon after tea, Ishant Sharma gave two big blows to the hosts. In the middle of an over Ishant called captain Virat Kohli and had some discussion with him,  then he bowled the fourth ball just outside the off-stump and forced Moeen Ali to give an edge and Virat made no mistake in taking a low catch in the slip. Next ball Ishant bowled the next ball a little inside and new batsman Sam Curren also edged to provide an easy catch to Rohit Sharma at slip. England was looking in trouble with the loss of two quick wickets as the scoreboard read 7/ 341. Yesterday Mohammed Siraj had taken the two wickets of Sibley and Haseeb Hameed in two balls. Today after Ishant’s fire, Siraj also charged up and lbw Robinson for his fourth wicket. Wickets were falling on regular intervals but Root was standing like a rock and heading towards his double century, at this Mark Wood got run out but by that time England had got past India’s first innings total of 364 runs and last batsman James Anderson came in to give stand to his captain. He faced 16 balls but could not open his account as Mohammed Shami bowled him to fold England’s innings at 391 and Joe Root was 20 runs away from his double hundred.

Brief Score: India First Innings: 364 All out in 126.1 Overs ( K L Rahul 129, Rohit Sharma 83, Virat Kohli 42, and Ravindra Jadeja 40, James Anderson 5/62. Robinson 2/ 73, Mark wood 2/91). England First Innings: 391 All out in 128 overs  (Joe Root Not out 180, Jonny Bairstow 57, Rory Burns 49, Moeen Ali 27, Jos Buttler 23, Dom Sibley 11, Mohammed Siraj 4/94, Ishant Sharma 3/69, Mohammed Shami 2/95 ).