IND vs ENG | Bullish Rohit-Gill tons pave path for India to stretch lead past 250 on Day 2

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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England continued to suffer in the Himalayan foothills as India roared past their total on the back of tons from Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma before Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel's fifties propelled the lead to 255. Despite a late mini-collapse, the hosts stayed put at eight down at Stumps.

‌‌Brief score: IND 473/8 (Gill 110, Rohit 103; Bashir 44-5-170-4) lead ENG 218 by 255 runs

A fresh new day only brought a novel quota of misery for England on Day 2 as Rohit Sharma and Shubman dispatched their bowlers to all parts of the grounds with nonchalance throughout the opening session. The pair stretched their overnight partnership of 31 up to 160, going past England's first innings total of 218 in the process and bringing up their respective centuries at the stroke of Lunch.

With the visitors in desperate strides, Ben Stokes decided to take matters into his own hands by preparing to throw down his first over in professional cricket since the second Ashes Test in June 2023. Boasting a script straight out of a fairytale, the talisman sent Rohit's off-stump cartwheeling on the very first ball and James Anderson pounced on the change in momentum to send Gill packing with a corker in the very next over. However, the twin strikes proved to be little respite for the Three Lions as another domineering stand followed. Sarfaraz Khan took on Mark Wood with aplomb after a sedate start to bring up a 55-ball half-century while debutant Devdutt Padikkal relied on a steady backfoot defence and some flamboyant strokes, taking the lead to 146 by Tea.

However, the 97-run partnership was snapped on the first ball after the break as Sarfaraz guided a Shoaib Bashir delivery straight to first slip which set the tone for the rest of the session. The off-spinner produced a beauty a few overs later to account for Padikkal shortly after he had registered his fifty and then proceeded to have Dhruv Jurel holed out at long-off in the same spell. Tom Hartley thereafter fed off the change in energy brought on by his partner-in-crime to dispatch spin twins Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin in the same over to further the collapse from 376/3 to 428/8. Regardless, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah put forth some exemplary rearguard action to frustrate England with an unbeaten 45-run stand and close-out play on a high.

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