Jurel, Ashwin give upper hand to India over England in Rajkot Test

Rajkot (Gujarat) [India], February 16 (ANI): The partnership of Ravichandran Ashwin & Dhruv Jurel and important runs from Jasprit Bumrah gave the upper hand to team India after the end of the second session on Day 2 of the third Test of the five-match series at Niranjan Shah Stadium on Friday.

Team India resumed the post-lunch session from 388/7 in 113 overs with Dhruv Jurel unbeaten on 31* which is laced by two fours and a six and Ravichandran Ashwin unbeaten on 25* with the help of four boundaries.

Both the batters were able to add 20 runs more to the total as Ashwin was sent back to the pavilion at the score of 408 runs after scoring 37 runs. Inside seven runs, India lost the wicket of set-batter Jurel who played a knock of 46 runs in his first innings of Test career with the help of three sixes and two fours.

In the end, Jasprit Bumrah played a valuable knock of 26 runs in 28 balls with the help of three fours and a six. India was bowled out at 445 runs and the visitors started off their innings from 5/0 as India got five penalty runs because Ashwin ran in the middle of the pitch.

For the visitors, the pick of the bowler was Mark Wood who grabbed four wickets and conceded 114 runs in his spell of 27.5 overs, Two wickets were bagged by leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed in his spell of 22 overs where he conceded85 runs. One wicket each was taken by James Anderson, Tom Hartley, and Joe Root in their respective spells.

Batters Zak Crawly and Ben Duckett came out to the field to open the innings for the Three Lions. Both the players started off the innings positively. The duo of Indian right-arm pacers seamers Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj were bowling with an accurate line length as they were not giving any lose deliveries to the batters

Earlier, the hosts resumed the second day from 326/5 in 87 overs with Ravindra Jadeja unbeaten on 110* and Kuldeep Yadav unbeaten on 1*. Both the batters put just five runs on the board as the side lost the wicket of Kuldeep on the bowling of experienced pacer James Anderson after scoring 4 runs when the team score was 331 runs.

Soon after Kuldeep’s wicket, the hosts dealt with another blow as right-arm off-spinner Joe Root dismissed set-batter Jadeja on the same score after scoring 112 runs off 225 balls which was laced by nine fours and two sixes.

After two quick wickets. Right-hand batter Ravichandran Ashwin came to support the debutant wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel out on the field. Both the batters completed a 50-run partnership as Jurel took a single on the third ball of the 110th over which was bowled by a left-arm spinner Tom Hartley.

Brief Score: England 31/0 in 6 overs (Ben Duckett 19, Zak Crawly 6, Mohammad Siraj 0/9) vs India 445 in 130.5 overs (Rohit Sharma 131, Ravindra Jadeja 112, Mark Wood 4/114).