England eye lead as India reduced to 153/6 at Tea

Ahmedabad, March 5 (SocialNews.XYZ) Ben Stokes took the all-important wicket of Rohit Sharma (49) as England continued to chip away at the Indian batting order in the second session of Day 2 of the fourth Test on Friday at the Narendra Modi Stadium. India ended the session on 153/6 with Rishabh Pant (36) and Washington Sundar (1) in the middle.

The hosts started on 80/4 after lunch with Sharma and Rishabh Pant in the middle. India's run rate had crawled to a snail's pace in the first session and Pant and Sharma looked to up the ante.

The partnership ended when Sharma was denied a 13th Test half century by Stokes. The umpire raised his finger after England appealed for LBW and Sharma reviewed the decision. Replays showed that the delivery jagged in to beat Sharma's inside edge after which impact was shown as umpire's call. Ashwin (13) was then dismissed late in the session by Leach.

Earlier, the hosts lost Cheteshwar Pujara (17), captain Virat Kohli (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (27) to end the first session of the day on 80/4. Jack Leach struck first by dismissing Pujara for the fourth time in this series. It ended a 40-run partnership between Pujara and Sharma that had seen India through to the end of play on the first day.

Stokes then dismissed Kohli for a duck. The ball rose on the Indian captain who ended up edging it to the wicketkeeper. Rahane then tried to up the scoring rate and eventually succumbed to Anderson having made 27 off 45 balls.

Brief scores: England 205 all out (Ben Stokes 55, Dan Lawrence 46; Axar Patel 4/68, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/47, Washington Sundar 1/15) vs India 153/6 (Rohit Sharma 49, Rishabh Pant 36 batting; James Anderson 2/19, Ben Stokes 2/33)

Source: IANS