Rishabh Pant’s third Test century (101 off 118 balls) and Washington Sundar’s unbeaten 60 took India to 294/7 wickets at the end of the second day of the fourth Test against England.
At stumps, India had a lead of 89 runs with Sundar and Axar Patel (11) at the crease.
Earlier in the day, Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara started off cautiously, in the first hour of the play.
Left-arm spinner Leach gave England the first breakthrough when he trapped Pujara leg before wicket for 17.
Next, Ben Stokes sent back skipper Virat Kohli for a duck, inducing an edge from a short and rising ball to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes. It was Kohli’s second duck in the series.
The scoring rate picked up with Rahane at the crease. But after a 39 runs partnership with Rohit Sharma, Rahane (27) was caught by Stokes off Anderson at the stroke of the lunch.
Stokes trapped Rohit LBW for 49. And when spinner Leach dismissed Ashwin for 13 runs, India were in danger at 146/6.
However, Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar saved the day with a 113 run partnership of 113 runs for the seventh wicket.
Prolific Pant
Pant paced his innings beautifully.
He took 82 balls to reach his first fifty runs. But the next 50 came off just 33 balls as he sent the English bowlers packing.
Pant hit 13 fours and two sixes during his blitzkrieg knock of 101 runs off 118 balls.
When Anderson was brought back into the attack with the second new ball, Pant welcomed him with two consecutive boundaries.
It’s a measure of Pant’s confidence that he reached his third test century with a swept six over mid-wicket off Joe Root.
Pant, finally fell as he tried to play Anderson into the mid-wicket area, but holed out to Root.
After the dismissal of Pant, left-hand batsman Axar Patel joined Sundar and took Indian tally to 294 at stumps.
India 294 for 7 (Pant 101, Sundar 60*, Anderson 3-40) lead England 205 by 89 runs
