England vs India 5th Test, Day 2 Highlights - Joe Root's 92 Not Out Gives Hosts 237-Run Lead
England are 385/7 at stumps on Day 2, leading India by 237 runs in the first innings. Joe Root is eight short of a hundred.
England finish Day 2 with a lead of 237 runs. India under enormous pressure to stay in the game. Catch all the highlights here: (SCORECARD)
23:03 (IST): England 385/7 at stumps on Day 2 with Joe Root batting on 92. The English lead over India is of 237 runs now.
22:53 (IST): Binny to Root. FOUR! Clipped away! A low full toss, Root clips it past the mid-wicket fielder for a boundary. England 375/7.
22:45 (IST): Binny to Root. FOUR! Good length ball just outside off, Root guides it to the third man region past the gully fielder for a boundary. England 366/7.
22:43 (IST): England now 360/7 and the lead has stretched to 212. Joe Root 74*, Chris Jordan 12*.
22:33 (IST): England's lead stretches to 200. They are now 348/7 with Root batting on 68. Jordan 8*.
22:21 (IST): Bhuvneshwar to Jordan. FOUR! Pulled away! Short ball from Kumar, Jordan pulls it from outside off through the mid-wicket region for a boundary. England 332/7.
22:12 (IST): Joe Root gets to his 8th Test fifty now. England 321/7, lead goes up to 173.
22:11 (IST): OUT! Chris Woakes is gone for a golden duck, caught behind by Dhoni off Bhuvneshwar. England 318/7.
22:08 (IST): SIX! Pulled away! Short ball on the middle and Root pulls it brilliantly above the fine leg fielder for a maximum. England 318/6.
22:03 (IST): OUT! Buttler goes for 45. Full on middle and leg and Buttler clips it straight to Ashwin at short mid-wicket. Sharma breaks the 80-run partnership. England 309/6 now.
21:57 (IST): Bhuvneshwar to Buttler. Chance for run-out! Shortish outside off, Buttler punches it towards point and sets off. Pujara collects the ball and throws at the non-striker's end but misses his shy. Binny fails to collect it cleanly there as well. There was a chance but India lets it go through. Risky single taken. England 308/4, lead 160.
21:53 (IST): In other cricket news, ICC chief N. Srinivasan and his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan were questioned today by the Supreme Court-appointed Mudgal Committee in Chennai. England taking it easy now at 305/5 here at The Oval.
21:44 (IST): Cook was given many lifelines today during his knock of 79 and the runs he got didn't really show how comfortable he was at the crease. Much of that was to be blamed on India's fielding. Read more here. England 303/5 lead India by 155 runs.
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21:42 (IST): Eighth boundary for Buttler and the English lead has now crossed 150. England 300/5 lead India by 152 runs.
21:40 (IST): Did you know? The Indian women's team today beat England women by 6 wickets in the one-off Test match at Wormsley. Read more about the win here. Here at The Oval, England (296/5) extend their lead to 148.
21:31 (IST): 21 overs still remaining in the day but unlikely that they will all be completed. ENG 289/5, lead IND by 141. Buttler 28*, Root 36*.
21:27 (IST): Ishant Sharma comes back into the attack. England 289/5.
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21:20 (IST): Aaron to Buttler. FOUR! SHOT! Good length ball just outside off, Buttler stays in the crease and cuts it through the cover region for a boundary. England 289/5.
21:16 (IST): Bhuvneshwar to Buttler. FOUR! Good length ball outside off, Buttler plays the square cut off the back foot through the gully region for a boundary. England 284/5.
21:08 (IST): Bhuvneshwar to Root! 50 partnership up between Root and Buttler! Full on middle and leg, Root flicks it wide of Binny at mid-wicket who gives it a chase and stops it before the fence. The batsmen run two. England 279/5.
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21:06 (IST): Aaron to Buttler. FOUR! Edged away! Fuller outside off, Root Buttler goes for the drive but gets an outside edge. The ball goes wide of third slip towards the third man boundary. England 277/5.
21:04 (IST): Aaron to Root. FOUR! Overpitched on the leg stump line, Root flicks it away through the square leg region for a boundary. ENG 272/5. Root 33*, Buttler 14*.
21:03 (IST): Varun Aaron to bowl from the other end with the new ball. England 268/5.
20:57 (IST): The second new ball is now taken and Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been handed the ball again. Joe Root on strike, three slips and a gully.
20:56 (IST): 80 overs in the England innings are up and the second new ball is now due. Will India take the new ball right away? ENG 265/5 now.
20:54 (IST): Binny to Root. FOUR! Beautifully driven! Full and wide outside off, Root drives it between the gap of the point and the cover region for a boundary. ENG 264/5.
20:47 (IST): Clouds were observed over the Oval ground today but then there's 0 % chance of rain. ENG 257/5. This image will tell you what I am talking about.
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20:44 (IST): Want to know what's happening in the English Premier League? The 2014-15 season started today and Manchester United have already lost their opening game to Swansea. Track live matches here. Here, England are now 255/5 and Ravichandran Ashwin looks like the man who is most likely to pick up the next wicket.
20:38 (IST): England's lead goes past 100. They are now 252/5 with Root and Buttler in the middle and the lead is now 104.
20:36 (IST): Stuart Binny gives away 2 runs in the first over after tea. England 248/5. Buttler 12*, Root 13*.
20:32 (IST): Welcome back for the final session on day 2. Jos Buttler and Joe root make their way to the center. Root to take the strike and Stuart Binny to bowl.
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20:26 (IST): Finally a session that belonged to India who managed to dismiss four English batsmen. Early in the session Cook was dropped twice once by Vijay and once by Rahane. Finally Vijay took his catch to dismiss him and then wickets started falling for England. Ashwin got two wickets and Aaron and Sharma one each in this session. English middle order collapsed after the wicket of their captain Cook. They managed to score 98 runs and get the lead of 98 in 28 overs. India will be looking to wrap up this English innings in the upcoming session. Join us in a while for the third and final session on day 2.
20:13 (IST): England 246/5 at tea, lead India by 98 runs. Cook 79, Ballance 64; Aaron 2/84, Ashwin 2/44.
20:06 (IST): Stuart Binny is brought in to bowl now. India throw in their last weapon, safe to say that? England 240/5.
20:05 (IST): Short and wide from Ashwin and Buttler smacks it for four! England 239/5 now, lead goes up to 91 runs.
19:59 (IST): Varun Aaron is off the field and he has got his foot up! And as we speak, Buttler hits Ishant for four to take England to 234/5 and the lead increases to 86 now.
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19:52 (IST): Ashwin to Moeen. OUT! Got 'em! Ashwin gets one more now. This was a slider, lands just outside off and slides on with the angle, Ali thought it to be an off-spinner, hence comes out to leave it but the ball keeps on going and takes a bit of his bat before tickling the stumps. 2 wickets in two overs for Ashwin. England 229/5 now!
19:48 (IST): In a shocking result in the 2014-15 English Premier League season opener, Manchester United lost 2-1 to Swansea. You can read more about it here. Here, England are 226/4 now with Moeen Ali on 12 and Root batting on 6. The lead has extended to 78 runs.
19:38 (IST): Stats time: Gary Ballance is the leading run-getter for England in Tests this year - his tally being 729 (ave.60.75), including three hundreds and three fifties, in 13 innings. ENG still 220/4.
19:35 (IST): England might have lost three batsmen---Cook, Ballance and Bell for 13 runs but the lead is still a sizeable 72 runs with six wickets in hand. ENG 220/4.
19:33 (IST): Moeen Ali hits Varun Aaron for two successive boundaries after the slight wobble. England 217/4 now. Root is with Moeen at the other end.
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19:26 (IST): Ishant to Bell. OUT! Edged and gone! Good length ball outside off, and moving away, Bell tries to defend it off the back foot and edges it to the keeper. Easy catch for Dhoni. England 204/4, lead India by 56 runs.
19:21 (IST): Ashwin to Ballance. OUT! Ballance is a goner! Poor shot! Flighted around off and Ballance plays it straight to the silly point fielder. Pujara at silly point takes a nice catch. England 201/3, lead India by 53 runs.
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19:19 (IST): India's 5th bowler in the form of Binny has bowled just four overs out of the 1st 62 in this inns. What is going on in Dhoni's mind? ENG 201/2.
19:10 (IST): Ashwin to Ballance. FOUR! On the pads, Ballance flicks it through the mid-wicket region. The ball reaches the fence and dies. England 197/2 and drinks is taken.
19:06 (IST): India have just won one five-match Test series away from home out of 11 and lost 9 out of them, drawn one. Not a very good record, definitely but then Team India hasn't played a lot of five-match Test series lately. England 192/2. Ballance 60*, Bell 0*.
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18:56 (IST): Aaron to Cook. OUT! This time Vijay takes the catch. Full ball again and moving again, Cook tries to defend off the front foot and gets an edge yet again. Vijay at first slip bents down and takes a low catch. Cook is gone for 79 and England are two down with a lead of 43. England 191/2. Second wicket for Aaron.
18:50 (IST): Cook is now the highest-run scorer for England against India in Test matches, England 181/1. Cook batting on 73 at the moment. Ballance 55*.
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18:45 (IST): Ashwin to Cook. Dropped again! This time by Rahane at first slip. Length ball outside off and spinning away, Cook goes for the drive and gets an outside edge to first slip. He already has got three lives in this innings. ENG 177/1.
18:41 (IST): Alastair Cook still doesn't look like he is in the best of form, he is still struggling in the middle and does not look as convincing. However, he has been given a few lifelines today by the fielders and the umpires. England 176/1. Cook 70*, Ballance 53*.
18:30 (IST): Aaron to Cook. Dropped! Full outside off and moving away, Cook tries to defend it off the front foot but gets an outside edge to first slip. Vijay at first slip drops a sitter. ENG 171/1.
18:28 (IST): Aaron to Cook. FOUR! Short of a length ball outside off, Cook cuts it through the point region. There is no one at the fence to stop the ball and he gets a boundary. ENG 171/1.
18:27 (IST): Aaron to Cook. No Ball! Overstepped! Full and coming in, Cook gets his front foot out and tries to defend. He gets hit on his front pad, Indians go up for leg before just to realise it was a no ball. ENG 167/1.
18:26 (IST): Varun Aaron comes back into the attack with England 166/1. They lead India (148) by 19 runs now.
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18:22 (IST): Serious move-on for England as Ballance gets another boundary and also his 3rd Test 50. England now 165/1.
18:17 (IST): Ashwin to Ballance. FOUR! Ballance gets to the back foot and cuts the short ball through the point region for a boundary. England 156/1.
18:14 (IST): Bhuvneshwar to Cook. FOUR! Runs straightaway! On the pads, Cook works it through the fine leg region. No chance for Dhoni to stop that one as the ball races away to the fence. England (152/1) now have a 4-run lead.
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17:36 (IST): A session yet again to England. They managed to score 86 runs off this session with the only loss of Sam Robson. Cook looks solid in the crease and has scored 38th half century of his career. Ballance at the other end is also looking rock-solid at the crease and have managed to get his score to 40. Cook and Ballance contributed 82 runs together and England and leveled scores with India. India got the only break through in this session and are slowly looking dead in the match. Join us in a while for the second session of day 2 of this final Test match between India and England.
17:32 (IST): England (148/1) draw level with India (148) on runs at lunch. Cook 56*, Ballance 40*; Aaron 1/49.
17:24 (IST): Bhuvneshwar to Cook. FOUR! On the pads, Cook flicks it off the back foot to the mid-wicket region. Binny at mid-wicket does not get down on time and lets it go through to the fence. England 144/1.
17:21 (IST): In some good news, India women beat England women by six wickets in one-off Test at Wormsley after chasing down 181 to win. Here, England are 140/1 with Cook batting on 52 and Ballance not out on 36.
17:15 (IST): Cook hits Ashwin for four and it brings up his 39th fifty in Test cricket. England 137/1 now. India made 148.
17:08 (IST): England extend to 130/1 now with Cook batting on 45 and Ballance on 35 not out. They trail India by just 18 runs now in the 1st innings. Meanwhile, if you want to catch updates from the 2014-15 English Premier League season opener, you can visit this page.
16:59 (IST): You might not want to miss this. In his last Test match, Mahela Jayawardene batting on 41 along with Kumar Sangakkara at 40 with Sri Lanka 155/2 in the second innings of the second Test match against Pakistan. Mahela and Sanga are now the second most established partnership in Test history after Tendulkar-Dravid.
16:50 (IST): Ishant hasn't been at his best. Cook and Ballance dealing with him easily. Four byes take England's score to 122/1 and the 50-run stand between the captain and Ballance has now been extended to 56.
16:39 (IST): Outside the ground before the start of the second day today at The Oval, there was time for some Gaza protests and discussion. Check out this amazing picture. ENG 106/1.
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16:32 (IST): Ishant has got Cook out for the most number of times (8) in Tests, along with Harris and Johnson. Drinks taken at The Oval with ENG 103/1.
16:29 (IST): Meanwhile, India women need just 30 more runs to win while chasing 181 against England women in the one-off Test at Wormsley. They are 151/4 right now.
16:24 (IST): Aaron to Ballance. FOUR! Edged away! Full outside off, Ballance tries to drive it but gets an outside edge instead. The ball goes just wide of the third slip fielder for a boundary. 100 up for England (103/1).
16:17 (IST): Ishant Sharma is brought into the attack to bowl his first over of the day. ENG 98/1. Cook 37*, Ballance 17*.
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16:08 (IST): Bhuvneshwar to Ballance. Four! Ballance has been the best English batsman by far in this series. The counter-punch is here. ENG 96/1.
15:59 (IST): Aaron to Ballance. FOUR! Flicked away! Full on middle and leg, Ballance flicks it through the square leg region for a boundary. Lovely timing there. England 88/1.
15:57 (IST): Cook and Ballance have already added 18 runs after Robson got out. Hasn't really been a while. England 84/1.
15:54 (IST): Aaron to Cook. Nice front-foot jab from the captain but Binny does excellent work near the boundary and stops the ball from going all the way for four. The next ball is clipped nicely for a four by Gary Ballance though. England once again have the momentum. 84/1.
15:45 (IST): Aaron to Cook. FOUR! Pulled away! Short of a length ball on the middle stump line, Cook rocks to the back foot and pulls it through the mid-wicket region for a boundary. England 75/1.
15:40 (IST): Aaron to Ballance. FOUR! Off the mark the first ball. Good length ball outside off, Ballance guides it through the gully region for a boundary. No third man to stop it. England 70/1.
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15:38 (IST): OUT! Aaron to Robson! Bowled 'em! India get the break through. Full on the middle stump line and Robson tries to drive it through the cover region. He misses it completely and the ball goes between his bat and pad. The ball did not do much, no movement no seaming in or either away. Robson goes for 37. England 66/1.
15:37 (IST): Aaron to Robson. FOUR! Short of a length ball and seaming away, Robson stays on the back foot and tries to push it to the off side. He gets an outside edge and the ball goes between the slip and the gulle region for a boundary. England 66/0.
15:35 (IST): Varun Aaron bowls from the other end. England still 62/0.
15:33 (IST): Bhuvneshwar Kumar begins proceedings for India on Day 2. England 62/0 in reply to India's 148. Commentator Sourav Ganguly says he would want to see Varun Aaron bowl from the other end.
15:30 (IST): The second day is about to begin here at The Oval but England today will also be waiting to see the 2014-15 season of the English Premier League finally kick off. Manchester United will face Swansea City in the opener at 5:15 pm IST.
15:24 (IST): In the subcontinent, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are playing another gripping Test match, the second and last in the series, which also happens to be Mahela Jayawardene's last Test match. Catch all the updates from that match here.
15:18 (IST): Hello and welcome to the second day of the fifth and final Test between India and England. England dominated India on the first day by routing them out on 148 and scoring 62 without any loss of wicket. They trail by 86 runs and will be looking to put up a huge lead on India today. While on the other hand, India will try and restrict England and will be looking for an early breakthrough.
15:14 (IST): No chance of rain today at The Oval as far as the weather forecast is concerned.
15:10 (IST): The skies are a bit overcast above The Oval and English skipper Alastair Cook is rigorously practicing the forward defense. The overcast bit will be good news for India.
15:08 (IST): India are not expecting the ball in the slip cordon, not expecting the ball to move in these conditions: Ganguly.
15:06 (IST): Winning the first session of play on Day 2 will be crucial for India, says commentator Ravi Shastri on TV.
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Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled 14 of the 19 overs India bowled on Thursday. Varun Aaron, who broke Stuart Broad's nose at Old Trafford, and Stuart Binny were also on show. If this quartet can reproduce at least 50 per cent of what England's four-pronged pace attack did to the Gambhirs, Kohlis and Pujaras, India will stay afloat in this match.
Ishant will be key. He will be Dhoni's go-to man. Aaron's pace will be crucial, but England surely won't repeat the Manchester mistakes. Alastair Cook and Sam Robson batted cautiously, mixing a few crisp attacking strokes with watchful defence, though the captain was lucky to survive a strong lbw appeal by Kumar on nine. (DAY 1 BLOG)
The first session on any given day of a Test match, always has more for the seamers. Kumar's lateral movement will keep the batsmen on their toes but all will depend how the Indians field, especially at slips. India's slip catching, like its batting, has been a big disappointment in this series. Like a 'loyal' team man, fielding coach Trevor Penney defended India's poor batting on Friday. Penny, like chief coach Duncan Fletcher, may not save his job for long if India bat and field like this.
Only a battling knock of 82 by Dhoni saved the tourists from complete collapse and his last-wicket partnership of 58 with was by far the largest stand of the innings. Gautam Gambhir went for a golden duck, Cheteshwar Pujara never looked comfortable, crawling to four off 19 balls before he was bowled by Broad, and Virat Kohli hit the first boundary off the bat after 55 minutes of play but, on six, he left a straight ball from Chris Jordan and was adjudged lbw.
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Ajinkya Rahane, on nought, got a leading edge in Jordan's next over and the bowler held a sharp return catch to reduce India to 28 for four. Opener Murali Vijay batted 92 minutes for 18 runs before he prodded tamely at a full delivery from Chris Woakes and edged a catch to Joe Root at third slip.
India struggled to 43 for five at lunch and Binny edged an Anderson outswinger to Cook at first slip before Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin shared a seventh-wicket partnership of 24. India took tea on 125 for nine and Dhoni continued to spray the ball around the ground in the final session. He hit 15 fours and batted for over three hours.
With rain in the London air, England will hope to bat the entire day on Saturday. A lead of 300 will put the Indians under enormous pressure again.