Essex vs India, Practice Match, Day 2, Review: Visitors chip in with key wickets after posting 395

Just like the first day of this practice game, the second day also was somewhat a moderate one for India. Essex is giving them some great competition and is raising quite a few questions. Also, by giving a go out there in the middle to all the batsmen, the Indian team also hinted at what could be their possible combinations for the series opener.

Furthermore, Virat Kohli gave a good long run to all his five fast bowlers. But, it is quite surprising that Virat didn’t opt to utilise the services of his spinners. Only two overs of spin were bowled. Both these were bowled by Ravindra Jadeja. Neither of Ravichandran Ashwin or Kuldeep Yadav was introduced into the attack. It will be interesting to see if they will be given the ball on the third and final day.

India batsmen fail to capitalise

India carried on to bat with an overnight score of 322/6. However, they were struck with a mighty blow right on the first ball of the day. Dinesh Karthik, who was expected to hit a century, was dismissed on 82 while trying to play an ambitious shot. Soon, Karun Nair was also dismissed after he scored 4 runs. He ended up dragging the ball on his stumps as he unnecessarily went for a cover drive off a ball pitched on the sixth stump.

Hardik Pandya, who was looking good, got out just after he reached his half-century. He scored 51 and then got out to a poor delivery that was bowled way outside off-stump. Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant were the final two batsmen in the middle.

With the latter coming in at No 11, it is quite a clear indication that he might not feature in the first Test. He played a T20 knock scoring 34 off just 26 balls. Jadeja, who might definitely find a place in XI next week got out after scoring 15 runs as he tried to smack one through the covers but ended up being caught. The visitors were bowled out for 395 runs which was a little disappointing. Paul Walter was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets to his name.

Not a very convincing performance by the bowlers

It was an excellent chance for the bowlers to get adjusted to the conditions before the first Test. While few of them fared really well, the others couldn’t really get their act together. Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma were the picks of the bowlers with two wickets each while Shardul Thakur managed to chip in with one scalp.

Essex opener Nick Browne was trapped in front of the stumps by Umesh after scoring 11 runs. Soon, Ishant Sharma also joined in by picking the wicket of in-form Varun Chopra. Chopra only managed to score 16 runs.

After being down to 45/2, Essex’s skipper Tom Westley and Michael Popper joined hands to build a good partnership. While the former scored 57 runs, Popper contributed 68 runs. Both of them failed to capitalise. At the close of play on day 2, Essex scored 237 runs for the loss of five wickets and trail India’s score by 158 runs.

Brief Scores:

India, 1st Innings: 395/10 in 100.2 overs (Dinesh Karthik 82, Virat Kohli 68, Paul Walter 4/113)

Essex, 1st Innings: 237/5 in 58 overs (Michael Popper 68, Tom Westley 57, Umesh Yadav 2/23)

State of the Match: Essex trail by 158 runs.

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