(Cricket news) India started the day 127 behind, lost a wicket in the first over, but kept on batting briskly, taking the lead in just the 57th over. KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja led the batting charts with contrasting fifties.

England were only able to regain some control of the match after five wickets fell. India all but batted England out of the first Test as early as the second day, overhauling their 246 for a first-innings lead of 175 and three wickets remaining.

The flip side of the aggressive intent was that wickets kept falling. All players except for R Ashwin got themselves in and, even so, Ashwin kind of gave away his wicket.

Only KS Bharat was bowled, caught at the wicket, or put out by leg before KS Bharat. The closest one to falling to a plan was when Yashasvi Jaiswal hit a catch back at Joe Root in the opening over of the day. Root went on to create opportunities for both Rahul and Shubman Gill, but was removed after only four overs despite appearing to be the best spinner on show.

Rahul edged the first ball he faced, Ben Foakes failed to collect it, and the umpire declared the ensuing run a bye.

Another lengthy spell for debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley saw him take the wicket of Gill, the only specialist batsman who consistently defended well in front of his body. As the runs added up, Gill sought the big release shot, which he missed when he misplayed Root but eventually hit Hartley straight to midwicket.

The only pacer in England’s attack, Mark Wood, was brought in to try and test Shreyas Iyer right away. However, Rahul hit him for three boundaries before he could even bowl to Iyer; his back-foot punch past point was a highlight reel moment.

Rahul’s batting style was typified by his willingness to stay back against spin and keep picking singles; 26 of his half-centurys, scored off of just 72 balls, came off the back foot.

Even though Iyer’s strategy was not perfect, he was merciless when the bowler’s made mistakes, and they made a lot of them. Take Rehan Ahmed’s opening over of the day, for instance. Rehan bowls with a seam that is not quite straight and also gives the ball the leg-break and the wrong ball out of the hand.

Iyer found it hard to pick him because the first ball went past the edge, the second took the edge but did not get to the boundary, the third hit the glove but went straight down, and yet he offered a short ball, giving Iyer the boundary.

The first maiden of the day came right after lunch. In the third over after the break, the second from that end, Iyer picked a wrong’un, and maybe he wanted the bowler to know that he had done so, but the slog sweep he committed to found the only boundary fielder on the leg side, deep midwicket. Rahul picked the variations correctly in Rehan’s next over, then went one better, hitting two sixes, both down the ground, to put India ahead.

After lunch, Rahul and Jadeja’s partnership took off, destroying any momentum that England might have had after that early wicket. They reached 52 in 51 balls, but soon Rahul was 14 short of a second home century to go with seven away from home when he was picked out deep midwicket by Hartley with a long hop.

Finally, England exerted some control, bowling 11.1 overs before tea for just 21 runs to Jadeja and Bharat. Jadeja, a true traditional spinner, was content to wait for the bad ball, save from Jack Leach not settling by stepping out to him.

Bharat did not get off to a strong start, but after tea, he too began receiving the regular ordinary ball, going from 10 off 44 to 41 off 81, though he failed to sweep a second boundary in a Root over.

Ashwin and Jadeja, who were excellent ball partners, soon got into an argument, giving England their first set of two quick wickets, but by then, India was leading by 112 wickets.
Although it is almost unfair to have to bowl to batsmen of that caliber for the eighth wicket, Jadeja and Axar batted like true top-order batsman, batting away the poor balls and keeping the good ones out. The spinners on display did not challenge them enough.

With a four, six, and four off the final three balls, Axar capped a calm day for himself. Although India had lost just two wickets at an over pace since Rahul’s removal, they still managed to add 133 runs for the loss of just two wickets, which meant more time for the pitch to break and more runs for the score to accumulate. Jadeja finished the day with a century in sight, and his partnership with Axar totaled 63 in 19.3 overs.

See more: Tanmay Agarwal Sets Record with Fastest First-Class Triple-Century in 147 Balls.