Ahmedabad: England openers Alastair Cook and Nick Compton defied Indian bowlers in the second innings after Indian spin twins Pragyan Ojha and Ravichandran Ashwin snapped eight wickets to bundle out England for 191 in the first innings of the first Test at the Motera Stadium here today.
Ojha scalped 5-45, while R Ashwin returned with figures of 3-80.
With a mammoth 330-run lead, it looked the tale will be repeated in the second innings as well but then skipper Cook and Compton put up a fierce fight to keep their hopes alive of saving the match.
Cook led from the front to score a solid 74, while Compton played the second fiddle to steer England to 111 for no loss at the stumps on third day.
England who are trailing by 219 runs have a herculean job at hand in the second innings and someone will have to come up with a huge innings in order to save the match. are still trailing by 219 runs.
India who put up a massive 521 in the first innings bowled very well in the first innings never gave any chance to English batsmen and they could hardly pose any resistance to Indian bowlers.
Wicket keeper batsman Matt Prior batted top-scored for them with 48.
It was Ojha’s fourth five wickets haul and lot will be expected from him and Ashwin who bowled very inconsistently in the last session today.
By Indian Sports News Network