Manchester, July 25: The Indian bowlers did not pose enough threat for the seasoned Joe Root and Ollie Pope who brought up fluent half-centuries, steering England to 332 for two in a wicketless morning session on day three of the fourth Test here on Friday.
After a forgettable evening session on day two, the Indian bowling attack once again failed to make inroads into the England batting.
Root (63 batting off 115 balls) and Pope (71 off 123) forged an unbeaten 135-run stand that threatened to take the game away from India, who
led only by 26 runs after posting 358 in their first innings.
Besides an odd ball keeping low from the James Anderson end and another jumping from the opposite side, Jasprit Bumrah and Co did not trouble Root and Pope.
Guilty of offering too many freebies on the leg side on Thursday, the Indian pacers continued to offer loose balls to release pressure on the opposition.
Bumrah bowled a full ball into Root’s pads to start his day and the England veteran duly flicked it for a four. Later in his spell, Pope and
Root were quick to pull Bumrah for a boundary each when the Indian pace spearhead pitched it short.
Resuming the day at 225 for two, England eased to 266 for two in the first hour of play.
Anshul Kamboj, who had an underwhelming start to his Test career on day two, created a chance in his opening spell but stumper Dhruv Jurel could not hold on to a tough chance. Pope was on 48 at the time,
Root took a single off Mohammed Siraj in the 58th over to become the third highest leading run scorer in Tests.
He is expected to surpass Ricky Ponting in the series and when that happens, he would only be behind the great Sachin Tendulkar, who amassed 15921 runs.
Washington Sundar was introduced as late as the 69th over and Root put him under pressure straightaway by reverse sweeping him for a boundary. (PTI)
