India maintain advantage through Padikkal-Sarfaraz stand

India continued to surge ahead through an unbroken 97-run stand between Sarfaraz Khan (56) and Devdutt Padikkal (44) as the lead swelled past the 150-run mark by tea on the second day of the fifth Test against England in Dharamsala. The two young batters reunited after the centurion pair of Rohit Sharma & Shubman Gill both fell in consecutive overs. With some reverse swing on offer, England were fancying their chances.

Padikkal launched into action with a series of streaky and sweetly-timed boundaries, and the counterpunch caught England off guard. Sarfaraz showed an improvement after a slow start and particularly liked England spinners in particular. He also played some audacious shots against pace – like a lofted straight drive and ramp against Wood. The duo’s antics shattered England’s slim chance of squeezing India’s lead in the early stages. The session started with Gill taking Anderson apart from a couple of boundaries to signal India’s intent.

Ben Stokes provided England with a spark of inspiration, as he does so often. Bowling for the first time in the series, it took just one ball for England’s skipper to break the partnership as he castled his counterpart Rohit with an absolute peach – the delivery straightening ever so slightly after the inward angle to disturb the off pole. Anderson then had his revenge over Gill with a nip-backer that went past the latter’s lazy poke to be beaten on the inside edge. From wondering when their next wicket would come to bagging both set batters in successive overs, England had found hope, only for Padikkal and Sarfaraz to quash them.

Brief scores: Zak Crawley 79; England 218; Kuldeep Yadav 5-72, Ravichandran Ashwin 4-51) trail India 376/3 (Shubman Gill 110, Rohit Sharma 103, Yashasvi Jaiswal 57, Sarfaraz Khan 56*) by 158 runs