Continuing from where he left off on Thursday evening, Ravichandran Ashwin took just 12 balls to strike the first blow against England on Day 2 and complete his five-wicket haul. It was Ashwin’s 23rd five-wicket haul in only his 43rd Test. (LIVE BLOG)
Ashwin, who is now seventh on the list of India’s leading wicket takers in Tests after he went past Javagal Srinath’s record of 236 wickets in Test, is now two wickets adrift of BS Chandrasekhar’s mark of 242.
The visitors resumed their innings at 288 for five and were banking on a big partnership between Jos Butler and Ben Stokes. But, Ashwin made one rip away from Stokes. The ball kissed the left-hander’s outside edge, hit wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel’s gloves on the way to Virat Kohli at slip.
Umpire Bruce Oxenford turned down Ashwin’s appeal, prompting India captain to ask for the DRS. Third umpire C Shamshuddin ruled in favour of the bowler after the Real Time Snicko (RTS) suggested a fine nick. Stokes was visibly upset after the verdict.
It was a tough call for Shamshuddin, who was assigned the third umpire’s duty as Marais Erasmus was substituting for original on-field umpire Paul Reiffel, the former Australian pace bowler. Reiffel is still off the field after being hit on the back of the head by a wayward throw from India fielder Bhuvneshwar Kumar on Thursday.
{{/usCountry}}It was a tough call for Shamshuddin, who was assigned the third umpire’s duty as Marais Erasmus was substituting for original on-field umpire Paul Reiffel, the former Australian pace bowler. Reiffel is still off the field after being hit on the back of the head by a wayward throw from India fielder Bhuvneshwar Kumar on Thursday.
{{/usCountry}}Stokes had started aggressively. Despite two of his teammates falling to sweep shots in the innings, his first shot of the day was a sweep off Ashwin. The England all-rounder took on Ashwin on the second ball he faced and had his heart in the mouth when he got the top-edge but fortunately the ball landed in no man’s land. From the other end, Stokes hammered Ravindra Jadeja through midwicket for the first boundary of the day. England had added only 11 runs to their total (297) when Stokes fell.
Butler also survived a DRS appeal and brought up England’s 300 with a four through midwicket off Ashwin. England reached 300 in 98.1 overs.