Oval Test, Day 2 Updates: Rohit, Rahul ensure India remain in the game after conceding 99 run lead

A brilliant batting performance from Chris Woakes has helped England gain a sizeable lead of 99 runs on the second day of the Oval Test. They were in trouble early on in the day when Umesh Yadav had dismissed both the overnight batsmen Dawid Malan and Craig Overton, but first, the partnership between Bairstow and Ollie Pope got them back in the game.

Their partnership and the momentum never allowed India to get firmly back in the game as all batsmen following the duo provided some amount of contribution with the bat and did not allow India to get going with regular wickets. 

Pope could not get to his century but his 81 helped England get past the lead and then the swashbuckling half-century from Woakes provided the icing on the cake for the hosts.

For India, there was not much in the pitch that appeared to be flat in nature on a day with an ample amount of sunlight. However, they were guilty of being inaccurate and providing a lot of boundary-scoring opportunities to the England batsmen.

The skipper Virat Kohli appeared frustrated and the concerns when England lower-order batsmen were carting Indian bowlers around the park was quite evident on his face.

Moeen Ali threw his wicket once again after getting through the tough phase of batting and India would not have a mind that dismissal against the run of play before the tea break.

He and Ollie Pope carried England into the lead as Indian bowlers were punished for not adapting to the changing nature of the surface from the last day.

Chris Woakes smashed a square drive off Umesh Yadav to end the afternoon session for the hosts while Virat Kohli will have to lead his bowlers and then the batsmen inspirationally to come back in the game.

Siraj finally got his line and length right in his second over after lunch and trapped Bairstow in front of the stumps to break the dangerous-looking partnership between him and Pope to give India a boost. The duo added 89 runs and provided England with perfect momentum.

The partnership between Bairstow and Pope added 77 runs for the sixth wicket and carried England to the lunch interval with just 52 runs behind India’s first innings total. 

India started the day on a brilliant note by removing Overton and Malan very early but the support bowlers in Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj lacked consistency and allowed the English duo to get going with a flurry of boundaries.

India would be disappointed with leaking so many runs in a very short span of time and the frustration was quite visible on Virat Kohli’s face while going back to the pavilion.

England are just 52 runs behind and have the unbeaten duo of Pope and Bairstow along with Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes to follow and they would be quite confident of their chances to take a significant lead.

India, on the other hand, would be desperate for a couple of wickets to start the afternoon session.

After bowling disciplined line and length in the first hour and yielding just 25 runs and taking two wickets, India were poor in their line and lengths and allowed the duo of Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow to take 28 runs off the two overs by Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj.

India started the day of the Oval Test by eliminating the two unbeaten batsmen from the last day—Craig Overton and Dawid Malan and both the wickets went to Umesh Yadav. The pacer became only the sixth Indian pacer to pick up 150 Test wickets.

They were ecstatic to see the back of Joe Root late on the last day and the wicket of Overton would almost be the perfect start they would be hoping for at the start of the day.