ENG v IND 2018: Twitter reacts as Sam Curran's late flourish takes England to 246 from 86/6

Sam Curran hit 78 and shared 50+ runs partnerships with Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad.

Sam Curran recorded his second fifty in this Test series | Getty

After a considerable break, England and India finally locked horns with each other in the fourth Test of the five-match series at The Ageas Bowl, Southampton on Thursday (August 30).

Opting to bat first, the English top order once again failed to make a mark. While Jasprit Bumrah claimed the wickets of Keaton Jennings (0) and Jonny Bairstow (6); Ishant Sharma and Hardik Pandya removed Joe Root (4) and Alastair Cook (17) respectively to reduce the home team to 57/4 at Lunch.

In the second session, Mohammad Shami dented England by removing Jos Buttler (21) early. Although Ben Stokes showed resilience with a gritty 23-run knock, he was eventually dismissed by a beautiful in-swinging delivery from Shami.

After Stokes’ departure, Moeen Ali and Sam Curran stitched a significant 81-run partnership to bail England out of trouble. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin got rid of Moeen on 40.

Returning into the playing XI after a surprising omission at Trent Bridge, Curran was determined to do well. He forged a valuable 63-run stand for the ninth wicket with Stuart Broad and in the process completed his second half-century of the series.

Curran was eventually dismissed by Ashwin but not before the southpaw scored a glorious 78 and took England to 246. The hosts would be mighty pleased with the final score given that they were reeling at 86/6 at one stage.

Indian openers KL Rahul (11*) and Shikhar Dhawan (3*) made sure that the visitors don’t suffer any hiccup on an opening day. In their four overs, India scored 19/0, trailing England in the first innings by 227 runs.  

Twitter experts were impressed to see the way Curran crafted his innings amidst the batting collapse while they also praised the Indian pacers.

Here are some of the tweets from the first day’s play:

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 30 Aug, 2018

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