By Shrey Siddharth
The stage was all set in the newly constructed world’s largest cricket arena, the Narendra Modi stadium in Motera. England won the toss and chose to bat. England had Crawley, Bairstow, Anderson and Archer replacing Burns, Lawrence, Stone and Moeen Ali. India had Washington and Bumrah in place of Kuldeep and Siraj. India brought their A-game right from the start. Here are the highlights from today’s game:-
India’s bowling unit show:-
Ishant Sharma who was playing his monument 100th test got the first wicket dismissing Sibley for a duck. Major contribution came in from Ashwin as he got 3 wickets including the big fish Root for 17, but Axar Patel was the star performer with his 5 wicket haul. England were bowled out for a paltry 112, with Crawley scoring a well made 53 and Axar Patel with 6-38
Motera lauds hometown boy Axar:-
Axar Patel owned the stage with his accurate bowling and picked up his second consecutive 5 wicket haul in his second match. Axar cleaned up Barstow with his very first ball. He went on to take 5 more wickets including the well set Crawley for 53. The Motera crowd was ecstatic to see their hometown lad at his very best.
Indian innings was on its way as the frontline batsmen faced the fire of Anderson, Broad and Archer. India had 2 early blows as Gill and Pujara were out in quick succession for 11 and 0. But a partnership between Rohit and Kohli saved the day for India in the final session. Rohit scored yet another classy 50. India finished with 99-3, with Rohit and Rahane batting at 57 and 1. Jack Leach picked up the important wickets of Pujara and Kohli. Can India pull off another marvellous test victory?
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