IND vs ENG: Spinners reduce England to 108/3 at Lunch

Electing to bat first, England were off to a decent start with openers Zack Crawley and Ben Duckett negotiating the pacers well.

Hyderabad: Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja made an immediate impact after their introduction to reduce England to 110/3 in the first session of the first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Electing to bat first, England were off to a decent start with openers Zack Crawley and Ben Duckett negotiating the pacers well. Despite missed edges and beaten deliveries, pacers Jasprit Bumrah and local lad Mohammed Siraj failed to break the opening stand.

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However, the introduction of spin in the 10th over delivered good immediately. England were reduced from a comfortable 55/0 to 60/3 in the span of five overs. Ashwin struck the first blow removing Duckett (35) in the 12th over when he trapped the batter in front of wickets. Duckett reviewed the decision and the replays hitting the top of leg stump. Three overs later, Jadeja induced an outside edge off Ollie Pope where Rohit Sharma took a sharp catch at the first slip.

In the next over, Crawley (20) gifted Ashwin his second wicket as he advanced down the track to hit the ball straight to mid-off where Siraj took a brilliant catch. However, Joe Root (18 batting) and Johnny Bairstow (32 batting) added an unbeaten 48 runs for the fourth wicket to take their side to lunch.