IND vs ENG: Rahul, Jadeja put India in commanding position on Day 2

IND vs ENG: On the second day of the first Test against England, star batter KL Rahul missed out on a well-deserved Test hundred at home but his fighting half-century put India in a commanding position on Friday at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.  

Stumps on Day 2 in Hyderabad! 🏟️#TeamIndia move to 421/7, lead by 175 runs 🙌

See you tomorrow for Day 3 action 👋

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/HGTxXf8b1E#INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/sul21QNVgh

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 26, 2024

India continues to dominate on Day 2

As India is celebrating its 75th Republic Day, cricket lovers gathered in large numbers and witnessed the dominating gameplay of Indian batters. India’s new No. 4 batter KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja scored fifties as India finished on 421/7 at stumps in reply to England’s 246. Rohit's men have a strong lead of 175 runs. 

4⃣0⃣0⃣ up with a delightful @imjadeja boundary 👏👏#TeamIndia extend the lead to 157 runs 👌👌

Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/HGTxXf8b1E#INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/OAL2xEwume

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 26, 2024

The day’s gameplay was extended by half an hour as the English side was 11 overs short of its scheduled quota of 90 overs. However, the visitor fell three overs short at the end of the day.

Rahul, who has promoted up the order in the absence of Virat Kohli, steered India to a strong position on a tricky surface. Meanwhile, Jadeja played an unbeaten half century taking the game further away from England. He scored his 20th half-century in Tests and hammered 7 boundaries and two maximums. 

What  KL Rahul has said after missing out on his century?

After the match, KL Rahul said, "The 100 in SA has given me some confidence, also having played 6-7 months of cricket since my injury. The aim was to stay positive when I went out to bat. Very different to that of South Africa (on the pitch) - a bit of turn, it became slower and slower as the ball went old. Was a challenge, I had to wait for my opportunity to play shots. Enjoying batting in the middle-order.

Furthermore, he added, "I did enjoy batting in the top-order for a long time, but here you get some time to put your feet up, watch as to how the ball is doing, what the bowlers are doing and it gives time to plan your innings. It's only the second day, we just wanted to bat the full day and get as many runs as possible (on the team plan). The chat was to bat as long as possible and everyone to bat and score as many runs as we could."

Brief Scorecard

England 1st innings: 246/10 in 64.3 Overs (Ben Stokes 70, Jonny Bairstow 37; Ravichandran Ashwin 3/68) 

India 1st innings: 421/7 in 110 Overs (KL Rahul 86, Yashasvi Jaiswal 80; Joe Root 2/77)