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In the first session start of day two of fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester, England found themselves in a good postion after the breakthroughs of Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur. The latter appeared very stable at the crease, sharing a 48 runs partnership with Washington Sundar, but got out while driving a ball by Ben Stokes. Rishabh Pant provided a late impetus to the Indian batting lineup in gritty and determined knock of 54 runs while batting with an injury before India got all out on a score of 358 in their first innings.
After that, England came out to bat while employing their "Bazball" style, with openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley giving them an aggressive start. Both the batters are at the crease and piling up runs in more than five runs per over. Zak Crawley took 13 balls to get off the mark, and it came with a reminder of the danger the pitch still posed as a Jasprit Bumrah delivery rose up sharply to rap him on the bottom hand.
Crawley found his rhythm a little later than Ben Duckett, who was the more fluent one from the two, with exceptional strokeplay and scoring a fifty in just 47 balls. He welcomed Anshul Kamboj with three fours in his first over of Test cricket after the debutant was chosen to open the bowling instead of Mohammed Siraj. Shortly after, they shared a 100-run stand, and just two overs later, Crawley brought up his fifty in 73 balls.
Ben Stokes’ took five wickets including Indian skipper Shubman Gill on day two of Manchester Test
As debutant Anshul Kamboj walked off the pitch for a duck earlier in the day, Ben Stokes completed his first five-for in eight years. His wickets included pivotal dismissals of Indian skipper Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan, the latter was appearing to be in good touch with his fifty. With this five-wicket haul, there are four players now in Test cricket with ten hundreds and five five-fors in Test cricket. The three of them apart from Stokes are Gary Sobers, Ian Botham, and Jacques Kallis.
English bowlers dominated the game despite some resistance offered by the Indian batters. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a pivotal fifty with Sai Sudharsan scoring his maiden fifty, after being given a second chance in this series. Shardul Thakur gave a good fight with his 41 run knock, but was dismissed by Stokes trying to drive. But the highlight of the day for Indian fans was a valiant knock by Rishabh Pant who scored a fifty and played with a fracture.
