Rahul
KL Rahul puts India in comfortable position in first Test against England
Hyderabad/UNI: Riding high on KL Rahul's unbeaten half-century, India won their third session of the first Test by scoring 103 runs in 27 overs after losing two prize wickets on Day 2 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Friday.
India were 222/3 at lunch, trailing England by 24 runs in the first innings, with Rahul and Shreyas Iyer batting on 55 and 34, respectively.
England put on 246 runs after the spinners shared 8 wickets between them with pacer Jasprit Bumrah taking two wickets.
Joe Root, who did not bowl yesterday, started the fourth session of the match and delivered in the very first over by removing Yashasvi Jaiswal after adding four runs to his overnight 76.
The part-time off-spinner almost had Rahul off the very next ball, but Ben Foakes squandered a stiff chance, which was given as byes by the straight umpire. Thenceforth, Rahul did not miss an opportunity and prolonged the scorecard by making England spinners look toothless.
Shubman Gill (23 off 66, 2x4s), however, went into a shell and lost focus. While trying to break the fetters, he mistimed a shot off Root and Ben Stokes failed to sight the ball under the glare.
However, Gill failed to capitalize on that opportunity and was caught by Ben Duckett at mid-wicket, when he tried to whip Tom Hartley, giving him his maiden Test wicket.
On the flip side, Rahul was comfortable scoring runs off Hartley as he essayed two consecutive boundaries, before seeping Root for another was doing the bulk of the scoring as he grew in confidence after fetching back-to-back boundaries off Hartley before sweeping Root for another boundary.
Soon after Iyer arrived in the middle, skipper Ben Stokes introduced Mark Wood and started to torment him with a flurry of short-pitch stuff.
However, the Mumbaikar survived the annoying period and looked good against the spinners. He launched an attack on Hartley for a six to gain confidence.
Brief scores: India 222/3 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 80, KL Rahul 55*; Joe Root 1/26) trail England 246 by 24 runs.
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