Chennai, 8/2: Despite the heroics of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, India is set to face the daunting task of chasing 420 runs in the first test match against England. At stumps India was 39-1, Shubman Gill is unbeaten at 15 and Cheteswar Pujara is not out at 12. Rohit Sharma was the only Indian wicket to fall, he scored 12.
In the morning India reached 337 runs with the help of Washington Sundar’s 85 runs. This was Sundar’s second consecutive fifty. The Indian Innings got bundled out in the morning session itself giving England a healthy lead of 241 runs.
England’s innings didn’t start well and Rory Burns got out in the 1st ball of the innings by Ashwin. After 114 years a spinner took a wicket in the 1st ball of the innings. Dom Sibley and Dan Lawrence also didn’t last long and got out after lunch. Captain Joe Root came out all guns blazing and scored a quickfire 40 runs. England lost wickets in regular intervals and got dismissed at 178. Ravi Ashwin got six wickets. This was Ashwin’s 28th five-wicket haul in his career. Ishant Sharma picked up a wicket to complete his 300th wicket tally. He became 3rd Indian pacer to do so after Zaheer Khan and Kapil Dev. Nadeem picked up 2 wickets and Bumrah picked up 1 wicket.
India needs to bat out 90 overs on the 5th day and need to score 381 runs more to seal an unlikely victory in Chennai. The pitch in Chennai is deteriorating quickly, saving this test match won’t be that easy for India.