By BD Naraayannkar
Visakhapatnam, Feb 2 (UNI) Yashasvi Jaiswal’s classy knock pushed India into a comfortable position on Day 1 of the second Test against England here on Friday.
Jaiswal cracked his career-best score in Tests, but England made a late comeback in the third session by picking up three wickets, to restrict India to 336/6.
The Mumbaikar got to his second Test century with finesse with a six over long-on off Tom Hartley and later reached 150 runs with a boundary of Joe Root.
Playing in his sixth Test, Jaiswal smashed 17 fours and five sixes to surpass his previous Test best of 171 on debut in the West Indies last year.
As he resumes his innings tomorrow, Jaiswal will make sure to notch up his maiden double hundred with Ravichandran Ashwin (5) giving him company at the other end.
India were cautious in the first session and lost skipper Rohit Sharma early on for 14 off 41 balls as he glanced debutant spinner Shoaib Bashir into the hands of Ollie Pope at leg slip, giving him his maiden Test wicket.
Shubman Gill, who looked good, was dismissed by James Anderson, caught behind by Ben Foakes for 34 off 46 balls with five boundaries.
Jaiswal, on the flipside, grew in confidence and started to tear apart the English spinners, especially the first Test hero Tom Hartley and Bashir. He took on the England spinners to smash Hartley for three successive boundaries and set the pace.
Jaiswal also shared fruitful partnerships with Shreyas Iyer, debutant Rajat Patidar, and Axar Patel.
Iyer (34 off 46) and Patidar (27 off 59) will be kicking themselves of missing out on a good batting pitch after making starts.
Axar Patel (27 off 51) and KS Bharat (17 off 23), however, threw away their wickets towards the end of the day’s play.
Anderson was England’s star bowler, removing Gill for the fifth time in Test cricket and conceding a miserly 30 runs from his 17 overs, while Bashir and Rehan Ahmed snapped two wickets each.
India are looking to bounce back in the five-match Test series after suffering a drubbing in the Hyderabad Test.
Brief scores India 1st Innings: 336/6 in 93 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 179 batting, Rajat Patidar 32, Shubman Gill 34; Rehan Ahmed 2/61, Shoaib Bashir 2/100).
