Twitter Reactions: Rohit Sharma's scintillating ton at Oval leads India's fightback at Oval, lead extends to 171

India ended the day with the score reading 270/3 with Kohli and Jadeja in the middle.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara
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Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara. (Photo by Philip Brown/Popperfoto/Popperfoto via Getty Images)

India needed to see off only the first hour to enjoy the best batting day of the series at Oval on Saturday. And they did it courtesy some brilliant batting from KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. The latter went on to build on a good start to smack as scintillating ton as India dominated the day, probably for the first time with the bat. If not for Ollie Robinson’s double wicket over with the new ball, it would’ve been a much better day for the visitors as they ended with 270/3 with a lead of 171 runs in the second innings.

The day started with India being 43/0, 56 runs still behind England’s first innings lead. Conditions were overcast, floodlights were on and it was perfect set up for the hosts bowlers to nip around a few quick wickets. The ball moved a little bit as well but India’s opening duo didn’t deter. They played and missed a few but concentrated hard on the next ball every time.

Moreover, Rohit Sharma offered a chance edging one to the second slip where Rory Burns spilled the catch to reprieve him for the second time in the innings. He made the most of the chances offered and played a long knock. Rahul got out after scoring 46 runs to James Anderson with score being 83.

Rohit and ChePu blunt England

Cheteshwar Pujara then arrived at the crease and much to everyone’s delight, took control of the run-scoring. He got into his groove superbly playing his strokes. He quite often rocked onto the backfoot nicely to churn out runs square of the wicket while Rohit quitely grafted some tough runs at the other end.

After lunch, he also started opening up and England bowlers went flat soon with nothing on offer for them. Both the batsmen did really well to neutralise the only spinner in Moeen Ali who was looking to pitch the ball into the rough patches. Rohit and Pujara both used their feet well to take toll of the spin bowler to add 154 runs together for the second wicket.

During the partnership, Rohit Sharma got to his maiden overseas ton in the longest format and he got their with a brilliant six down the ground off Moeen. The man was looking set for a huge score but the second new ball proved to be his undoing. Rather the ball didn’t do anything and it was yet another case of Rohit throwing away again looking to play the pull shot.

Nevertheless, he smashed 127 runs before getting out putting India in a very strong position after being 99 runs down in the first innings. His innings was filled with 14 fours and a six and the whole knock was absolutely pleasing to the eyes. His partner Pujara also got out in the same over off Ollie Robinson which put India in a spot of bother for some time.

England again felt a sniff sensing a collapse but Virat Kohli and the new number five for this match, Ravindra Jadeja did well to deny them any more success. The duo tackled the tricky period first before Kohli unfurled a couple of eye-catching cover drives off his nemesis James Anderson late in the day. With India’s score of 270/3, the umpires called off play with 14 overs still to go.

As usual, it goes without saying with the ball still fairly new, only 12 overs old, the first session will be extremely crucial for both the teams as India will hope to continue their domination.

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