R R Cricket Junction

Joe Root 99* guides England to 251/4 on tough day

Root’s unbeaten 99 guides England on day 1 (Image Credit:- X)

Joe Root’s (99* runs from 191 balls) unbeaten innings helps England to reach 251/4 in challenging day 1 of first test at Lords. Root becomes the first batter to score 3000 test runs against India. England done well to reach there on a pitch which offers plenty for bowlers.

Earlier England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and choose to bat. England included Jofra Archer in place of Josh Tongue and for India Jasprit Bumbrah back in the playing XI , pacer Prasidh Krishna missed out.

Also Read:- Deepti Sharma pulls out of 2025 Women’s Hundred

Jofra Archer included in England test playing XI for the first time since 2021.

England openers Zak Crawley (18 runs from 43 balls) and Ben Duckett (23 runs from 40 balls) faced tough first hour and survived close calls. Both put together 43 runs for the opening wicket before Nitish Kumar Reddy dismissed both openers in one over.

In the first session of play England scored 83 runs for the loss of both openers in 25 overs.

Ollie Pope (44 runs from 104 balls) and Joe Root (99* runs from 191 balls) carried England with 109 run partnership for the third wicket. Both scored 70 runs in post lunch session without loosing any wicket.

Left arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja dismissed set Ollie Pope very first ball after tea. Dhruv Jurel who came as substitute keeper for injured Rishabh Pant took a good catch to dismiss Pope. Harry Brook (11 runs from 20 balls) who came to bat after Pope’s dismissal disn’t last long. Bumrah’s beautiful inswinging delivery rattled Brook’s stumps.

Root and Stokes put together unbeaten 79 runs (Image Credit:- X)

Joe Root and Ben Stokes (39* runs from 102 balls) put together unbeaten 79 runs from 170 balls took England to 251/4 without any further loss of wicket. They will resume the batting on Day 2.

Nithish Kumar Reddy (2/46 in 14 overs) , Ravindra Jadeja (1/26 in 10 overs) and Jasprit Bumrah (1/35 in 18 overs) are the wicket takers for India so far.

One comment

Leave a Reply