India keeps hold on England despite debutante Keaton Jennings heroics

It was England's day until a 30 minute period which balanced the game at the end of the day.

England won the toss and made a solid start with skipper Alastair Cook partnering with debutante Keaton Jennings. They both paced the innings beautifully, played shots all around the ground and survived any early scare. Jennings with the help of six fours reached 50 on his debut. The partnership fell just short of a century stand as captain Cook(46) was first to depart. Once again Jadeja picked up Cook's wicket in the series as he continues his hunt of the English skipper. Cook was stumped by Parthiv Patel.

Jennings was dropped on 0 by Karun Nair off Umesh Yadav's delivery

England lost only one wicket in the first session and ended it on 117/1. Jennings and Root continued the innings in 2nd session, but Root(21) gave away his wicket as skipper Kohli and the no. 1 bowler in test cricket, R. Ashwin combined to dismiss him. Keaton Jennings took full advantage of the early lifeline as he scored a century in his first ever test with 12 fours. It was a memorable moment for the debutante. After Root's wicket, England added 60 more runs in the session without losing any more wicket and went for tea at 196/2.

Umpire PR Reiffel was replaced by M Erasmus as the on-field umpire. Reiffel got hit on the head by the ball, as the throw came in from the deep.

Jennings and Moeen Ali continued the innings with full control and not gave away too much to the Indian bowlers. Ali reached his 9th test fifty. It looked like England will own the day, but in came R. Ashwin to pull the game into balance. 

The master of spin rolled his fingers to pick up two wickets in a single over. First to go was Moeen Ali(50), whose attempted sweep shot saw the top edge of the bat to land in hands of Karun Nair. Then after 1 ball, Jennings(112) get caught brilliantly by Pujara in the slips. 

With Moeen Ali's wicket, Ashwin crossed Javagal Srinath's 236 wickets to become 7th highest wicket taker for India.

With both set batsmen gone, India sensed the opportunity to pull themselves back into the game. Ben Stokes had to face the peril of Ashwin's spin but he somehow survived and got away. But this didn't stop India from getting one more. Ashwin got his 4th of the day after he dismissed Jonny Bairstow. 

Jos Butler and Ben Stokes survived the day with England putting 288 runs on board at the end of the day's play.


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