Pigeon's interference disrupts Keaton Jennings' concentration; gives India lucky breakthrough

He played a well-compiled knock of 42 runs.

Published - 01 Aug 2018, 19:08 IST | Updated - 01 Aug 2018, 19:08 IST

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England owned the first session after winning the toss as the visitors only managed to pick the wicket of Alastair Cook. The duo of Joe Root and Keaton Jennings batted with determination and stitched an unbeaten partnership of 57 runs until lunch. The latter, however, was lucky to be in the middle after being dropped by Ajinkya Rahane when he was on 9.

But he was looking solid with his technique and played some delightful strokes whenever the Indian bowlers offered him width. His growing inning was proving to be a headache for Virat Kohli‘s men. The post-lunch session was crucial for both the teams. India needed to break the partnership and make more inroads while the hosts wanted the top order to do the bulk of the scoring in the first innings.

Root and Jennings resumed cautiously and the likes of Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma were refreshed after a break. The batsmen added 14 runs since lunch in around 7 overs and the problems were compounding for India.

Unusual delay

At the start of the 36th over of the innings though, a pigeon interfered the proceedings just when Mohammed Shami was getting ready to bowl his new spell. It wasted a little bit of time as the batsmen had to recollect their thoughts to face the bowlers again. Keaton Jennings took strike for the first ball as Shami charged in.

He bowled a short delivery into his body as the batsman stayed on the back foot to defend. But he was beaten with the pace of the ball as it took inside edge of the bat, hit his shoes and then rolled on to the stumps only to remove a bail off its grooves. It was a lucky break for India as Jennings was looking good and the pigeon interference probably disturbed his concentration.

He scored 42 runs off 98 balls and thumped the ball to the boundary four times during his stay in the middle. The timely breakthrough has brought the tourists back into the game and they will now look to put pressure on the middle-order of England.