Twitter Reactions: Indian pacers dismiss England for 246 on day 1 at Southampton

India dominated the opening day of the fourth Test as the visitors first bowled out England just a few overs before stumps and then scored 19/0 at the The Ageas Bowl on Thursday.

With India trailing by 227 runs, openers Lokesh Rahul (11) and Shikhar Dhawan (3) remained unbeaten. The day started with Indian pacers wrecking England’s top order, taking four quick wickets to reduce the hosts to 57/4 at lunch.

Electing to bat first on a track with a tinge of live grass, England’s opening woes continued to haunt them as Keaton Jennings was trapped plumb in front by an excellent inswinging delivery from Jasprit Bumrah, for a duck in the third over of the innings.

One over later, Bumrah almost sent packing English skipper Joe Root when he was on two, before the DRS came to the latter’s rescue. Root was trapped plumb in front but television replays showed the bowler had overstepped.

The England captain, however, failed to take advantage of the reprieve as Ishant Sharma swung it big into the England captain to trap him lbw.

Reduced to 15/2, England’s hopes were pinned on former skipper Alastair Cook (17) and Jonny Bairstow (6), playing as a specialist batsman after injuring his finger.

But Bumrah scuttled such ambitions by scalping Bairstow, caught behind by Rishabh Pant in the 13th over before first-change bowler Hardik Pandya ended Cook’s 55-ball resistance, thanks to a brilliant catch at the third slip by Virat Kohli.

Resuming the post-lunch session at 57/4, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler played out the initial few overs cautiously before Buttler started opening up only to bring his downfall, caught by Virat Kohli off Mohammad Shami.

Reduced to 86/6, the left-handed pair of Moeen Ali and Sam Curran steered the ship to safety, as they played the Indian pacers with extreme caution and did not allow premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to dominate.

The final session saw Moeen and Curran stabilising the hosts innings, forging a crucial 81-run partnership. After Ali’s wicket no other batter supported Curran, and as a result, the hosts were bundled out for 246 just before the end of play.

For India, Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets while Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin took two wickets each.

Here are some of the Twitter reactions:

https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1035172519135858688

https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1035227451188805632

https://twitter.com/itsalokj/status/1035228268973182976

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CATEGORY: England Featured India Teams Test Twitter Reactions

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