The day two of the fifth and final Test of the series between the hosts England and the visitors India at The Oval (London), the visitors struggled very much while the hosts returned to the game in a brilliant way.

The hosts England started the day on their overnight score 198/7 with their unbeaten batsmen Jos Buttler (11*) and Adil Rashid (4*). After Rashid was dismissed on 15 as England went down to 214/8, Buttler and Stuart Broad put a brilliant 98-run partnership for the ninth wicket that helped the team to cross the 300-run mark in the first innings.

In that partnership, the birthday boy Buttler completed his crucial half-century in 84 balls and continued that innings for the further period which raised the pressure for the Indian cricket team. Meanwhile, Broad provided the brilliant support to Buttler and also kept on the scoreboard.

Finally, in the early second session, Broad was dismissed on 38 off 59 balls (3 fours) and few overs later, Buttler lost his wicket after playing a brilliant knock of 89 runs off 133 balls (6 fours and 2 sixes). In the result, England was all out on 332 runs.

Among the Indian bowlers, the comeback cricketer Ravindra Jadeja (4/79) picked up four wickets while the pacers Ishant Sharma (3/62) and Jasprit Bumrah (3/83) shared three wickets each.

In reply, Indian cricket team lost their opener Shikhar Dhawan (3) cheaply in just the second over of the innings. Another opener KL Rahul and no.3 batsman Cheteshwar Pujara soon took the control in the innings as they put 64-run partnership for the second wicket. But once that partnership was broken, the visitors lost some wickets in quick times.

Both Rahul and Pujara scored 37 runs while the Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane scored a duck. Later, the in-form skipper Virat Kohli put an important 51-run partnership with the debutant Hanuma Vihari for the fifth wicket. In the last moment, India lost two quick wickets that put them again in the trouble.

Kohli was just one run short to complete his half-century as he was dismissed on 49 runs while the wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was caught out on just 5 runs. The debutant Vihari has impressed with his batting as he remained not out on 25 runs at the end of the day while the comeback man Ravindra Jadeja was batting on 8 runs at the same period. At the stumps on day two, India was batting on 174/6 and they are still trailing by 158 runs.

English pacers James Anderson (2/20) and Ben Stokes (2/44) have got two wickets each while Stuart Broad (1/25) and Moeen Ali (1/46) have picked up one wicket each.

Some important stats of day 2 of The Oval Test between England and India

• English batsmen Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad put a 98-run partnership for the ninth wicket. It is England’s second highest Test partnership for the ninth wicket against India. The record is 103 runs between Matthew Hoggard and Craig White at Nottingham in 2002.
• Indian cricketer KL Rahul has taken 13 catches in this Test series. As an Indian non-wicketkeeper, it is the joint most number of catches taken in a Test series. In 2004, Rahul Dravid had also grabbed 13 catches in the four-match home Test series against Australia. Meanwhile, it is also the joint most catches taking record as a non-wicketkeeper in an away Test series (former Australian cricketer Bob Simpson had also taken 13 catches during their South Africa tour in 1957/58).
• English cricketer James Anderson remained not out on 0 runs and it was his 29th unbeaten Test innings on 0 runs. Adding this innings, Anderson now leads the list of most not out Test innings players on 0 runs. The English lower-order batsman surpassed Chris Martin’s (New Zealand) record, who had been unbeaten on 0 runs in 28 Test innings.
• Indian pacers have taken a total of 59 wickets in this Test series. It is the most aggregated wickets taking record by the Indian pacers in a Test series. The previous record was Indian pacers had picked up 58 wickets in their home Test series against Pakistan in 1979/80.
• Playing his 382nd international cricket innings, Indian skipper Virat Kohli (18,028 runs) completed 18,000 international runs. Kohli is now the fastest cricketer to complete 18,000 international runs.
• English pacer James Anderson has taken 107 Test wickets against India. The right-arm pacer is now the most Test wicket-taker against India as he surpassed the previous record of 105 Test wickets against India by the former Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.