England ended Day 2 of the ongoing Leeds Test in a dominating position, at 423/8. They lead India by 345 runs. With three days to go, India’s chances in the match are barely academic. Joe Root scored 121, his third hundred of the series in as many Test matches, to continue a great run of form.
The Indian bowlers, despite bowling better than Day 1, could not stop the top four English batters from reaching fifty. The wickets came too late in the day.
Openers Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed started the day on 120/0. Burns (61) was the first to go, when Mohammed Shami (3-87) went through his defence. Hameed (68), the second English wicket, became Ravindra Jadeja’s (2-88) first wicket of the series.
Root joined Dawid Malan (70), who is making a comeback after three years, and started scoring briskly. He started with couple of boundaries in the over before lunch, and took off in the second session. Malan and Root added 139 runs in 32 overs, batting almost throughout the entire second session.
Mohammed Siraj (2-86) finally broke through before tea – though India needed the DRS to get Malan (70). By then, Root had already reached 80.
Root soon completed his 23rd Test century off 124 balls. This was his eighth hundred against India, the joint most, along with Garry Sobers, Viv Richards, Steven Smith, and Ricky Ponting. He also has the second most (23) Test hundreds for England, along with Kevin Pietersen.
Root and Jonny Bairstow (29) added 52 for the fourth wicket. Bairstow hit a six and three fours off Jadeja but Shami returned to remove both Bairstow and Jos Buttler (7). This was a relatively better phase for Indian bowlers as Jasprit Bumrah (1-58) bowled Root. In the next over, Jadeja dismissed Moeen Ali for 8.
Sam Curran (15) and Craig Overton (24*) added 33 before the former became Siraj’s second wicket. Overton now has Ollie Robinson (0*) for company.
Ishant Sharma’s (0-92) bowling remained a big concern for India. He has been excellent over the past three days, and this was probably the worst he has bowled since then.
Brief scores: India 78 (Rohit Sharma 19; James Anderson 3-6) trail England 423/8 (Joe Root 121; Mohammed Shami 3-57) by 345 runs.