India dismiss England for 246

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.

Hyderabad: Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel got turn and bounce on the first day as they ran through England batting order to dismiss the visitors for a paltry 246 on the opening day of the first Test, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, on Thursday.

Ashwin, Jadeja scalped three wickets apiece while Axar and Jasprit Bumrah got two each as Ben Stokes’ side got a reality check on the first day itself. The visitors’ Bazball fell flat. Barring captain Ben Stokes, who himself took 53 deliveries to score his first boundary, waged a lone battle with an 88-ball 70 but others failed to show any stomach for a fight.

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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.

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.

In the fifth over after the lunch, Axar Patel produce a beauty that missed Baitstow’s bat and castled his off stump that ended the 61-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Jadeja then got the price wicket of Joe Root after the batter went for a sweep only to top-edge it to fine leg where Bumrah took a comfortable catch. Root’s (29) dismissal fastened the England fall as Axar then forced Ben Foakes to edge one to wicketkeeper Bharat while Bumrah returned to dismiss Rehan Ahmed with a slower one that took the batter’s inside edge on the way to wicketkeeper.

Stokes, who took 53 balls to score his first boundary, then opened up hitting Jadeja for three overs in the 57th over to take his team past 200-run mark as they reached 215/8 at tea. On resumption, Ashwin ended Mark Wood’s (11) stay at the wicket in the third over by uprooting his off stump to reduce the visitors to 234/9. In the company of the last man Jack Leach, Stokes tried to wage a lone battle. He did so by smashing Ashwin for a six but Bumrah then got one leaving his defence to hit the middle stump that ended the captain’s vigil and England’s innings in 64.3 overs.