Indian bowlers on Thursday ran riot in front of the England batting top order that looked clueless in front of Indian seamers led by the brilliant Jasprit Bumrah. The visitors produced a disciplined show in wrapping up England’s innings for 246 runs on the opening day of the fourth Test match at the Areas Bowl in Southampton. It was Sam Curran’s partnership with Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad that helped the hosts in putting up a respectable score in front of the visitors.
Bumrah dismissed three English batsmen, while Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami and spinner Ravichandran Aswin took a pair each and all-rounder Hardik Pandya scalped one batsman.
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Returning all-rounder Sam Curran anchored the English innings with a superb knock of 78 as he was the centre of the 81 and 63 runs partnership with Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad for the seventh and ninth wickets respectively. The determined partnerships saved the day for England as at one point of time they were struggling at 86 for 6.
After bundling England for 246 runs, Indian openers started the innings cautiously with Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul both at the create with 3 and 11 runs respectively. The hosts are leading by 227 runs.
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Surprisingly, it was India’s first unchanged eleven, ending a 45-match streak of constant changing in the playing XI and it was the first time in 29 Tests as a captain for Virat Kohli that he fielded the same XI as the previous match.
England First Innings:
A Cook c Kohli b Hardik Pandya 17
K Jennings lbw b Bumrah 0
J Root lbw b Ishant 4
J Bairstow c Pant b Bumrah 6
B Stokes lbw b Shami 23
J Buttler c Kohli b Shami 21
MM Ali c Bumrah b Ashwin 40
SM Curran b Ashwin 78
AU Rashid lbw b Sharma 6
SCJ Broad lbw b Bumrah 17
JM Anderson not out 0
Extras: (B-23, LB-9, NB-2) 34
Total: (For 10 wickets in 76.4 overs) 246
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-15, 3-28, 4-36, 5-69, 6-86, 7-167, 8-177, 9-240, 10-246.
Bowling: JJ Bumrah 20-5-46-3, I Sharma 16-6-26-2, HH Pandya 8-0-51-1, Mohammed Shami 18-2-51-2, R Ashwin 14.4-3-40-2.
India First Innings:
S Dhawan not out 3
KL Rahul not out 11
Extras (B-4, W-1) 5
Total: (For no loss, 4 Overs) 19
Bowling: JM Anderson 2-1-3-0, SCJ Broad 2-0-12-0.