Ben Stokes pressed the accelerator button when it was needed the most to top-score with 70 off 88 deliveries, while veteran spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took three wickets each as India bowled out England for 246 on day one of first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday.
It was an innings where England were great in patches — the opening partnership yielding 55 runs while Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow had a stand of 61 runs for the fourth wicket. Stokes, the England skipper, brought up his 31st Test fifty after lunch, while making precious runs with the lower-order to take England past 200.
England’s first challenge of fronting up to Indian spinners in their ‘Bazball’ era ended in favour of the visitors’. Eight England wickets fell to spin as they were left in a spot of bother twice at 60-3 and 155-7.
Three wickets each were taken by Jadeja and Ashwin respectively, though the former was expensive due to coming in line of the Stokes onslaught. Axar Patel took two wickets, while fast-bowler Jasprit Bumrah also had two scalps.
Stokes, coming back to action after a left knee surgery last year, proved that he still possesses his famed fighting qualities, seen by hitting six fours and three sixes to wage a late counter-attack for England.
He followed his all-familiar pattern of starting slow, before pressing the accelerator to enter a higher gear and clearing the boundary ropes with aggressive stroke-play, seen from him getting his last 53 runs off his final 36 deliveries.
Post lunch, Stokes smashed Jadeja for two back-to-back enormous leg-side sixes to bring up his fifty, after being given a reprieve by KS Bharat on the first ball of the third session.
After Mark Wood was castled by Ashwin for 11 while attempting a big heave, Stokes lofted the off-spinner for six and then got a four off Bumrah to get a boundary. Eventually, Bumrah beat Stokes comprehensively on the outside edge and rattled his off-stump to wrap England’s innings in 64.3 overs.
With 246 being a decent score on a pitch which hasn’t been as tricky to bat on as it is usually in India, the hosts will be aiming to bat for at least one and a half days to put themselves into ascendancy in the match.
Brief Scores: England 246 in 64.3 overs (Ben Stokes 70, Ben Duckett 35; Ravichandran Ashwin 3-68, Ravindra Jadeja 3-88) against India