News 18 Malayalam
In the second innings, India’s openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma were out in the first hour. England pacer Mark Wood struck out India for a double. On the fourth day, India’s goal was to put pressure on England by scoring well. Indian openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who faced the England bowlers carefully, were slowly leading the Indian score. But Rahul was the first to come out with an Indian score of 18. Buttler was caught by Mark Wood and Rahul returned. Rahul, who scored a century in the first innings, scored just five runs in the second innings.
After Rahul’s return, Rohit Sharma, who had been playing well till then, returned with a wicket to Wood himself. Rohit returned with a catch to Moin Ali off Wood at 27 for India. Rohit’s return came as fans were expecting him to repeat his performance in the first innings. He faced 36 balls and scored 21 runs. Following this, India captain Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara slowly led India to the crease. The carefully batted duo were slowly adding runs to the scoreboard.
But when India’s score reached 55, Sam Karan returned the Indian captain to the pavilion. Kohli, who was batting on 20 off 31 balls, was bowled by Karan Butler. Ajinkya Rahane is currently at the crease with Pujara scoring three runs off 46 balls and one run off eight balls. If both the losers in consecutive matches fail in this innings too, there will be huge criticism leveled against them.
The Pujara-Rahane partnership is crucial for India, who are currently trailing by three wickets. India will be under a lot of pressure if the two cannot maintain ties. The big challenge for them is to face England’s excellent pace bowling line-up.
Earlier, England had chased down India’s first innings score of 364 with 391 in the first innings. It was on the strength of a century by England captain Joe Root. Root, who faced 321 balls, was unbeaten on 180 runs. India’s Mohammad Siraj took four wickets and Ishant Sharma three.
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