ENG vs IND | Explosive opening acts and chaotic collapses leave match finely poised on 15-wicket Day 2

‌Resuming from an overnight score of 204/6, India got off to a rollicking start on Day 2 at The Oval with Karun Nair banishing Josh Tongue's first ball for a boundary before Washington Sundar added four more later in the over. However, the pacer had the last laugh by pinning Nair plumb in front with a resounding inducker for 57, thus kickstarting a collapse that saw the visitors lose four wickets for six runs. Sundar, now tasked with shepherding the tail, departed four balls later when he hooked Gus Atkinson straight to square leg and the pacer scalped the remaining two in his next over to fold out India for 224.

Nevertheless, with the ball moving viciously off the seam on the green top, India seemed to be right in the contest until Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett had their say. The English opener pair came out all guns blazing as Crawley struck Mohammed Siraj for two consecutive fours in the third over before Duckett reverse-flicked an Akash Deep length ball all the way immediately after surviving a close LBW appeal and a catching chance. The dimunitive opener then added three more boundaries in the right-arm quick's next over as the 50-run mark came up with a maximum in the seventh over. The introduction of Prasidh Krishna to the attack resulted in two more boundaries and by the time Deep finally provided the opening breakthrough by nicking behind Duckett for 43, the score had already raced to 92. Ollie Pope and Crawley added 17 more in the session, the latter bringing up a 42-ball half-century in the process, to take England through to Lunch at 109/1, just 115 adrift of India.

The hosts picked up exactly where they had left of the previous session as three more fours followed in as many overs, albeit not with the same assurance. A small spell of dots followed and culminated in Crawley trying to climb onto a sharp Krishna bumper, only to sky a simple catch to midwicket. It was all the trigger Siraj needed to deliver a match-changing spell that sent Pope (22) and Root (29) packing with nearly identical in-seaming jaffas, before capping off the effort with an inswinging yorker to leave Jacob Bether hapless. The hosts thus suddenly found themselves at 195/5 but a lead remained firmly in their sights as Tea approached. Harry Brook and Jamie Smith looked set to begin the rebuild but just when they were in touching distance of India's total, Krishna delivered two snorters to dismiss the wicket-keeper batter and Jamie Overton in the last over before the break. Nevertheless, Brook kept plugging on to bring up his fifty in the final session and had grown the lead to 23 when he played on Siraj to make the pacer the highest wicket-taker in the series, as England folded out for 247.

In response, Yashasvi Jaiswal took the same approach as his rival openers and courtesy simple drops from Liam Dawson and Brook, smashed his way to a quicker than run-a-ball half-century. KL Rahul and Sai Sudharsan were more sedate at the other end, and paid the price by losing their wickets for 7 and 11 respectively before Deep stood resolute as the night watchman. There were still nearly 15 minutes of possible play left when bad light made spin bowling mandatory, a term Pope refused to accept as both teams walked off for Stumps.

😂❤️

Duckett vs Sai

Didn't think

Chirping

Positive intent

Superb

Good one

Balanced

Power house

India lead

3-1