3rd Test: Root and Pope take England to 83/2 after Reddy removes openers

London, July 10 (IANS) Joe Root and Ollie Pope shared an unbroken 39-run stand after Nitish Kumar Reddy’s double strikes and ensured England reached 83/2 in 25 overs at lunch on the first day of the third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series against India at Lord's on Thursday.

Bowling at a gentle pace and with a reputation of making the most out of a new-ish red ball, Reddy struck twice in four balls of his first over to remove Duckett and Crawley, who survived the first hour’s play. It took Root (24 not out) and Pope (12 not out) to lead England’s recovery and reach lunch without any more damage.

Pushed into bowling first, Jasprit Bumrah, coming in for Prasidh Krishna, and Akash Deep were drawing edges, with the latter being all over a struggling Zak Crawley, who shuffled across his crease and stance in an over off his third over. In the eighth over, Crawley took three fours off wide balls from Akash – including one going unconvincingly over the slip cordon.

After bowling four overs from the Pavilion End and troubling Ben Duckett with seam movement, Bumrah beat him and Crawley’s inside edge with swing from the Nursery End. After the drinks break, India’s bowling change worked when Duckett was undone by a slower ball from Reddy and gloved a pull to the right of Rishabh Pant.

Reddy then ended the 14th over by taking out Crawley with a length ball swinging away at the last moment, and extra bounce taking his edge behind to Pant. With Pope being typically frenetic, Root did the majority of run-making by driving and flicking Mohammed Siraj for two fours, before glancing Akash Deep for another boundary, as a session with shared honours came to an end.

Brief scores:

England 83/2 in 25 overs (Joe Root 24 not out, Ben Duckett 23; Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-15) against India

--IANS

nr/bsk/