Joe Root unbeaten 48 and Roy Burns gutsy 49-knock helped England to claw their way back against India on the second day of the 2nd Test here at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Friday.
At stumps, England’s score read 119/3 as they trail by 245 runs with Joe Root(48*) and Jonny Bairstow(6*) currently unbeaten at the crease after 45 overs. Resuming the final session, Mohammed Siraj provided a dream start for the Indian team in his first over after Tea as he took two successive wickets of Dom Sibley and Haseeb Hameed. In a replay of his Trent Bridge dismissal, Sibley flicked a length ball on the pads in the air to the waiting short midwicket. Then, on the next delivery which was full and straight from Siraj, the England number three – Haseeb – simply missed as the ball clattered into his stumps for the golden duck.
England captain Joe Root then took matters into his hands and with opener Burns, he started rebuilding for the hosts. Root then soon went past Graham Gooch’s 8,900 runs as the 2nd highest run-scorer for England in Tests just behind legendary Alastair Cook.
Indian pacers bowled a tight line and length, but Burns and Root were up to the task as England went past the 100 run mark after 38th over of their innings.
In the additional last half hour of the play in the day, it was Mohammad Shami who speared one into the pads of Burns from around the wicket to give India a crucial breakthrough in the game. England opener walked to the pavilion for 49 off 136. Bairstow and Root then made sure to walk England into day three without losing any further wickets.
At Tea, England’s score read 23/0 after 14 overs with Rory Burns(11*) and Dom Sibley(11*) unbeaten on the crease. The second session witnessed the English bowlers wrapping up the wagging Indian tail in a quick manner for the score of 364 as India lost eight wickets for just 97 runs.
Brief Scores: England 119/3 (Rory Burns 49, Joe Root 48*; Mohammed Siraj 2-34, Mohammed Shami 1-22); India 364 (KL Rahul 129, Rohit Sharma 83; James Anderson 5-62) vs England.