LEEDS: An unbeaten 78-run stand between Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara kept India hanging in the game with a wicket-less post-lunch session on an overcast day at Headingley.
At tea, India were trailing England by 242. With dark clouds overhead and swing on offer, the English bowlers missed their lines which resulted in quite a few freebies. And Pujara was happy to play the waiting game and use those leg-side offerings to collect easy runs off his pads. He flicked a rare loose ball from Anderson through midwicket to get off the mark, before getting a half volley next on the pads which he duly dispatched again to take India past 50. England managed to string together a hat-trick of maidens but Anderson continued to spray it on the pads and Pujara did not miss the feast.
Rohit, meanwhile, could have been walking back to the hut on 39 had Root asked for the DRS a second earlier than he did. Moments after having burnt a review already on the Indian opener for a LBW call, Root and Robinson contemplated hard for another until they ran out of time. Much to their disappointment, the replays confirmed this time the ball would have gone on to clip the top of middle and off.
Barring that, Rohit continued to look India’s best batsman in the game and preferred the offside for his runs. He went on to raise the fifty of his partnership with Pujara with the first of the back-to-back boundaries as soon as Sam Curran returned into the attack, before notching up his own half-century in the same over. At tea, Rohit was unbeaten on 59.
Earlier in the day, India picked up England’s last two wickets in under 15 minutes before almost seeing through the rest of the morning session unscathed until KL Rahul edged one to right of first slip where Jonny Bairstow, from second slip, pulled off a one-handed stunner to give England a breakthrough just at the stroke of lunch.
Score Board
India won toss
India 1st Innings 78 all out
England 1st Innings 432 all out (J Root 121, M Shami 4-95)
India 2nd Innings
Rohit Sharma not out 59
KL Rahul c Bairstow b Overton 8
Cheteshwar Pujara not out 40
Extras (lb 1, nb 2, w 2) 5
TOTAL (46 Ov, 1 wicket) 112
Yet to bat: Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant Ü, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Fall: 1-34 (KL Rahul, 18.6 ov)
Bowling: James Anderson 14-7-26-0, Ollie Robinson 13-3-31-0, Craig Overton 10-5-18-1, Sam Curran 6-1-29-0, Moeen Ali 3-0-7-0
Umpires: Alex Whard and Richard Kettleborough (England)