Pant joins party with ton, England fights back after restricting India to 471 in first innings
Ollie Pope's century helps England reach 209/3 at stumps on day 2, Bumrah takes 3 wickets
Leeds: Jasprit Bumrah displayed his spine-tingling genius after Rishabh Pant unfurled an audacious hundred, but England batters, led by centurion Ollie Pope, produced their own parade to reach 209 for three at the end of the second day of the first Test here Saturday.
Pope (100 batting) and Harry Brook (0) were at crease when the stumps were drawn with England whittling down India’s lead to 262 after the visitors made 471 in their first innings.
Brook would certainly thank his stars as a pull off Bumrah, which was caught by Mohammed Siraj, was adjudged no-ball in the last over of the day.
It was a sliver of example how the Indian pacer tormented the hosts’ batters.
England did not quite solve the Bumrah puzzle but they showed enough spunk to bat through the storm.
Pope can be a lovely batter to watch in full flow, but here the Surrey man sussed up the conditions and the general quality of the attack to a nicety to tweak his batting.
Once he survived a massive shout for leg-before perpetuated by Mohammed Siraj, relying mainly on his bottom hand to collect runs with cuts and dabs through point, gully regions.
Pope came to the middle when Bumrah was bowling in a charged atmosphere after he consumed opener Zak Crawley (4) in the first over itself with a peach in a wonderful exhibition of fast bowling.
Crawley never looked settled, producing edges in his first three balls, and the fourth one proved lethal. The delivery took the outside edge of the right-hander’s bat, grazed on his thigh pad and eventually nestled in Karun Nair’s hands at first slip.
Pope’s partner Ben Duckett (62 off 94 balls), with whom he added 122 runs for the second wicket, had big slices of fortunes too.
He was dropped on 15 by Ravindra Jadeja at backward point off Bumrah, but the England batters were good enough to put those thorny moments behind them to cash in on the profligacy of Bumrah’s colleagues in the pace department.
Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, a hard length bowler, were eager to discover the mandatory fuller length in England, but they overreached in their effort, often giving ample space and width for batters to make some risk-free runs.
Just as the alliance was swelling, Bumrah, who was used in short, sharp bursts, returned for his third spell, and he induced an inside edge off Duckett to halt England’s free walk.
It was also slightly perplexing to see India skipper Shubhman Gill delaying the introduction of Shardul Thakur into the attack, which eventually happened in the 34th over.
The move did not give any noticeable lift to India’s bowling unit, and the visitors also watched in dejection of the leg-before decision against Joe Root off Siraj overturned via DRS.
But that did not deter Pope as he reached his ninth Test hundred with a cheeky single off Bumrah as sun-washed Headingley greeted the fourth hundred-maker in two days.
However, Bumrah returned at the right time to nick off Root to end a threatening 80-run stand for the third wicket.
But before Bumrah made an instant impression, another Indian player thrilled the Leeds crowd as Pant’s seventh Test hundred was soaked in brilliance and impudence.
Once India resumed from overnight 359 for three, they needed Pant and Gill to carry on from previous day’s point.
They showed intent too as the Indian captain motored onto 147, his highest score in Tests, and milked 209 runs for the fourth wicket with his deputy.
Pant was at his entertaining best, starting his cavalier ways with a stunning falling paddle off spinner Bashir behind stumper Jamie Smith, a la West Indian legend Rohan Kanhai.
A six over mid-wicket off spinner Shoaib Bashir carried him to 94, and the 90s is a rather troubled territory for Pant as he was dismissed seven times in Tests on that score in his career.
So, it was not really surprising to see him taking singles until he reached 99.
Pant then decided not to waste too much time, and summoned that one-handed six off Bashir to go past the 100-run mark for the seventh time in his career, and the 27-year-celebrated the occasion with a perfect somersault.
It was also a moment of redemption for Pant as Gavaskar had slammed his shot selection during the tour to Australia with the stinging remark “stupid, stupid, stupid.” But on this day, the legendary batter atoned for it with the exclamation of “superb, superb, superb!” on air.
However, the dismissals of Pant and Gill gave England the opening and they crashed through, taking seven Indian wickets for 112 runs across two sessions.
