London: Jos Buttler’s fighting knock of 69 on Saturday helped England post 260 for 8 in their second innings on the third day of the fourth Test at the Ageas Bowl cricket ground.
England now have a competitive lead of 233 runs in the game and will look forward to push it further on Sunday with still two wickets in hand.
Quite like their first innings, England didn’t get a good start in the second one as well as none of their top order players – Alastair Cook (13), Keaton Jennings (36), Moeen Ali (4) – managed to play a long inning. After Jonny Bairstow got out for duck on the first ball itself at the score of 4-92, it was England skipper Joe Root (48) and Ben Stokes (30), who gave a little bit of momentum to their side.
However, it was Buttler, whose 56-run partnership with Stokes and 55-run partnership with Sam Curran (37 batting), helped England get into a competitive position with 200-plus lead. At stumps, Curran remained unbeaten for 37 while James Anderson and Stuart Broad are yet to bat.
For India, Mohammed Shammi (3/53) was the leading wicket taker while Ishant Sharma (2/36), Jasprit Bumrah (1/51) and R Ashwin (1/78) supported him.
Earlier India had India restricted England to 246 on the opening day. Later Cheteshwar Pujara’s unbeaten 132 helped India post 273 in the first innings and take a 27-run lead against the hosts.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]