England extended their overall lead to 345 runs in the first innings against India at stumps on the second day of the third Test being played at Headingley, Leeds, on Thursday. Joe Root scored a magnificent century once again and three other English batsmen brought up their half-centuries as the home team was placed in a strong position at 423/8 at the end of the play on the second day.
England had earlier bowled India out for a poor score of 78 in which their bowlers made mockery of the star-studded Indian batting line-up on the first day of the match.
As many as three English batsmen scored half-centuries with which included their openers Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed, who completed their fifties on the first day itself. Burns was dismissed for 61 by Mohammed Shami, an innings in which he faced 153 balls and hit six fours and one six. On the other hand, it was India’s sole spinner in the game, Ravindra Jadeja, who dismissed Hameed for 68 from 195 balls which also included 12 boundaries.
England, who had brought in Dawid Malan in place of Dom Sibley for this match, were in for some rich luck on the second day of the match as their batsmen continued to make merry against an Indian bowling attack which looked ordinary. Malan was absolutely brilliant in his innings on his Test comeback, scoring 70 from 128 balls with the help of 11 boundaries.
But it was the English captain Joe Root who was once again magnificent on the day with the bat. The right-handed batsmen faced 165 balls and scored 121 runs with 14 boundaries in a fluent innings which included strokes on all the parts of the ground. Root was also involved into big partnerships — first with Malan for 139 runs for the third wicket and followed it up with another 52-run stand for the fourth wicket with Jonny Bairstow.
After the England top order had done their job, India came back into the contest towards the later stages of the match on Thursday as they took wickets at regular intervals. Bairstow made 29 before he was dismissed by Shami, who also got rid of England wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler for seven. Mohammed Siraj got the rate of Sam Curran for 15 whereas Jadeja dismissed Moeen Ali for 8.
Towards the end of the match play on Thursday, Craig Overton had done extremely well to reach 24 not out from 31 balls with the help of four boundaries as he was batting in the company of Ollie Robinson, who was yet to score a run for himself.
While Shami took three wickets, Siraj and Jadeja claimed two each and Jaspreet Bumrah grabbed the one. Ishant Sharma was the only Indian bowler on the second day of the third Test who remained wicketless.