England Send Back Both Openers As India Reduced To 72/2 At Lunch

London: England made two vital breakthroughs and reduced India to 72 for 2 in the rain-affected opening session on day 1 of the fifth Test at The Oval on Thursday.

With Ollie Pope captaining England in the match, the home team struck early, dismissing opener Yashasvi Jaiswal for 2, who was trapped LBW in front of the wicket by pacer Gus Atkinson.

Pace bowler Chris Woakes then reduced India to 38 for 2 by cleaning up KL Rahul’s (14 off 40 balls) stumps.

Sai Sudharsan and skipper Shubman Gill steadied the innings on an overcast day by scoring an unbeaten 25 and 15 respectively and stitching an unbroken 34-run stand for the third wicket before heavy rain, which came a few minutes before lunch, sent the players scurrying back to the dressing room.

Earlier, Trailing 1-2 in the five-match series, India made four changes to their playing xi, bringing in dhruv jurel, karun nair, akash deep and prasidh krishna in place of injured pant, shradul takur, Anshul Kamboj and Jasprit bumrah.

Brief Scores: India 72 for 2 in 23 overs (Sai Sudharsan 25 batting, Shubman Gill 15 batting; Chris Woakes 1/28).