BENGALURU: On the strength of their bowlers’ tremendous show, India inched ahead on Day 2 of their four-day warm-up match against Leicestershire.
After the visitors declared their first innings on their overnight score of 246-8, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Siraj stepped up and bowled the hosts for 244.
Leicestershire got off to a bad start as their opener Samuel Evans was nipped out for just 1 in the 6th over by Shami. In his next over, the seamer castled Cheteshwar Pujara – who is playing for Leicestershire – for a duck and celebrated jubilantly.
Siraj accounted for their other opener Louis Kimber, who reeled off a few attractive shots and scored 31, as the hosts were reduced to 44-3.
Rishabh Pant – who is also playing for Leicestershire – was the only batsman who faced Indian bowlers with aplomb and whipped out a slew of cracking shots. However, barring Rishi Patel – who made 34 – the left-hander didn’t get adequate support from other batsmen.
He fell to left-arm spinner Jadeja after thumping a breezy 76 which included 14 boundaries and a six. After his dismissal, Roman Walker – who had taken a five-wicket haul – also squeezed out 34 as Leicestershire were bundled out for 244 in 57 overs.
Shami and Jadeja snagged three scalps each.
In their second essay, Indian openers – Srikar Bharat and Shubman Gill – batted solidly and cobbled up a 62-run partnership for the first wicket. Bharat – who had scored an unbeaten 70 in India’s first innings – opened in place of Rohit Sharma and oozed calm. Gill, on the other hand, looked in smashing form as he unfurled a plethora of boundaries. Before he was snared by Navdeep Saini, Gill cracked 38 off just 34 balls.
Bharat and Hanuma Vihari were batting at 31 and 9 respectively at stumps and the visitors were leading by 82 runs.
The pending fifth Test match between England and India will be played at Edgbaston between July 1 to 5.