England reach 31/0 at tea, India 445 all out

Rajkot, Feb 16 (PTI) England safely negotiated a short session to reach 31 for no loss at tea after India’s first innings ended at 445 on the second day of the third Test here on Friday.

Openers Ben Duckett (19 batting) and Zak Crawley (6 batting) were at the crease when tea was called.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma (131) and Ravindra Jadeja (112) struck fine hundreds while debutant Sarfaraz Khan made a promising start to his Test career with an impressive 62 off 66 balls.

In his first international outing, wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel too batted very well for a neat 46 off 104 balls and the seasoned Ravichandran Ashwin chipped in with 37 while sharing a 77-run partnership for the eighth wicket.

India resumed the second day on their overnight score of 326/5 with Jadeja and night-watchman Kuldeep Yadav (1) at the crease.

Both Jadeja and Kuldeep, however, got out at the start of second day as India slipped to 331/7.

Ashwin and Jurel then steadied the innings.

For England, returning pacer Mark Wood finished with figures of 4/114 in 27.5 overs.

Brief scores:

India 1st innings: 445 all out in 130.5 overs (Rohit Sharma 131, Ravindra Jadeja 112, Sarfaraj Khan 62; Mark Wood 4/114).

England 1st innings: 31 for no loss in six overs.