India vs England | India face uphill task after England post massive total

Brief scores: England 477 (Moeen Ali 146, Joe Root 88, Liam Dawson 66*, Ravindra Jadeja 106/3) lead India 60/0 (Rahul 30, Parthiv 28) by 417 runs

India pull things back

With England resuming the day at a commanding position of 284 for 4, India got off to a great start to the day as local boy Ravichandran Ashwin removed Ben Stokes in the first over of the day itself.  Stokes tried to hit a tossed-up delivery but only ended up giving a catch to Parthiv Patel behind the stumps.

Pacer Ishant Sharma then kept piling the pressure on English batsmen with a series of awkward bouncers against Jos Buttler. He finally got Buttler rapped on the pads to which the umpire did not respond. Virat Kohli went for the review, even when it was clear that the impact was outside off. After losing the review, Ishant smartly dropped a fuller delivery in the next over, and this time, Buttler was trapped plumb in front of stumps.

To keep that intensity up, Indian skipper Virat Kohli brought on Umesh Yadav, who has consistently bowled at 140 Kmph, to unsettle the English batsmen. Moeen Ali, who seemed little rusty in the morning session, was finally exposed by Umesh's short ball giving a simple catch to Ravindra Jadeja at square leg with the score reading 321/7.

England pile on the lead

Dawson managed to settle down and alongside Adil Rashid he defied India for the next 15.2 overs, taking the scoreboard to 352/7 at Lunch.

But the pair went on to dominate the proceedings after Lunch frustrating the Indian bowlers for 26 more overs adding 77 runs. The duo also completed their half-centuries in the process before Umesh Yadav finally broke the 108-run partnership by removing Adil Rashid with a bouncer. Despite breaking this partnership, India still laboured on to remove the next two wickets giving the visitors a chance to cross the 450-mark. Even last man Jake Ball was able to last for 22 runs for the final wicket before Amit Mishra brought an end to the England innings at 477 by bowling Ball.

India get off to a steady start

With opening posing the biggest problem for India in the past few series, Virat Kohli decided to send the pair of Parthiv Patel and KL Rahul to open the innings. The pair curbed their attacking instincts that have not worked well in the series so far and played carefully right from the start. There was an early mix-up while running between the wickets which could have cost Patel’s wicket, but the duo survived it and navigated carefully scoring occasional boundaries off bad balls.

Alastair Cook was mindful with his bowling options after over-bowling Adil Rashid backfired in the fourth Test and brought Moeen Ali and Liam Dawson into the spin attack first. Nevertheless, the Indian openers did not seem to be in trouble and played the spinners with ease reaching India’s second fifty partnership for the first wicket in this series. They finally ended the day at 60/0 with the pitch looking good enough to aid the batsmen on the third day.