London: India extend lead to 230 runs despite losing captain Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in the first session of day four at The Oval Test on Sunday. At lunch, India were 329/6 with Rishabh Pant (16 not out) and Shardul Thakur (11 not out) at the crease with four wickets in hand.
Resuming from 270/3, India lost two wickets for 28 runs in the first hour. Chris Woakes, introduced into the attack for the first time in the day, struck on his second ball with Ravindra Jadeja’s wicket. A nip-backer around off lured Jadeja into coming forward and was rapped just below the knee roll. Jadeja (17) took the DRS but replays showed ball hitting the top of off-stump
Woakes almost had two in the over when Ajinkya Rahane was hit on the pads after offering no stroke to a nip-backer. Rahane took the review and got the decision changed as the ball would have gone above the stumps.
In the next over by Woakes, Rahane played all around a full inswinger for a flick and was hit low on the front pad for an eight-ball duck.
India extend lead as Kohli hit some gorgeous cover drives off James Anderson and offered the same treatment to Ollie Robinson. Captain Joe Root’s another bowling change worked well as Moeen Ali got the big wicket of Kohli in his first over. Kohli pushed forward to an outside off delivery, playing for the turn. But the ball took the edge to Craig Overton at first slip.
Thakur played some cracking boundaries while Pant relied more on strike rotation, ensuring that India didn’t any more wickets till lunch. With three wickets and 59 runs conceded, England have been brought back into the match by strikes from Woakes and Ali.
Brief scores (Day 4, Lunch): India 191 and 329/6 in 118 overs (Rohit Sharma 127, Cheteshwar Pujara 61; Chris Woakes 2/47, Ollie Robinson 2/84) vs England 290.
