England dominated the first day of the fourth Test against India at the Oval in London on September 2. Joe Root won the toss and chose to bowl first, a decision that was proven right by his bowlers, as Indian batting capitulated in front of bounce and seam movement.
Both the sides made two changes each as England brought in Chris Woakes and Ollie Pope, while India included Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur. Little did India knew that Shardul Thakur will save them from major blushes.
Indian openers KL Rahul (17) and Rohit Sharma (11) were found wanting in front of good and tight bowling by England pacers who got bounce and movement off the pitch. Cheteshwar Pujara (4), and Ajinkya Rahane (14) carried their terrible run of form in Oval as well, while Ravindra Jadeja (10) who was promoted to no.5, couldn’t do much.
Rishabh Pant played a horrendous shot to get out for 9 runs, but first, it was Virat Kohli, whose 50 helped India steady the ship a bit and then Shardul Thakur brought some entertainment with him.
He slammed a 31-ball half-century, the second-fastest by an Indian in Tests, hitting the England pacer to all parts of the Oval ground with nonchalance. He was finally dismissed for 57 in 36 balls with 7 fours and 3 sixes.
His entertaining 63-run partnership for the 8th wicket with Umesh Yadav helped India put 191 runs on the board.
Chris Woakes had a successful return to the England Test team with figures of 4/55, while Ollie Robinson picked 3/38.
The cricket fraternity was in awe of Shardul’s half-century as his knock gave respectability to the final Indian total and lauded his contribution on Twitter.
Here are the tweets:
