At the start of the second day’s play of The Oval Test between England India, the match was hanging in balance. England were trail by 148 runs and had lost three wickets including the prized scalp of Joe Root.

Umesh Yadav made sure that India finished the first day on high with Root’s wicket. And he ensured a good start too as he removed Craig Overton and Dawid Malan in no time. England were 62/5 and India had a sniff to finish their innings quickly.

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Jonny Bairstow and Ollie Pope, however, had some other ideas and started counterattacking to put the Indian bowlers under pressure. Both batsmen scored at a brisk pace and shared 89 runs for the sixth wicket before Mohammed Siraj trapped Bairstow LBW.

Meanwhile, Pope kept hurting India with regular boundaries and notched up a half-century in his comeback game. He found a good ally in Moeen Ali who scored 35 runs but threw his wicket away cheaply. Pope got out after scoring 81 runs but by then England marched past India’s total.

Chris Woakes took four wickets with the ball and returned to hurt India with the bat as well. He scored a quickfire fifty and piled on India’s agony. His effort with the bat saw England gaining a crucial 99-run lead at the halfway stage of the fourth Test match.

Umesh Yadav grabbed three wickets while Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja managed two wickets apiece.

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In response, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul got off to a nervy start. Both batsmen tried to control the innings in their quest to take India to the stumps without losing any wicket. They punished bad balls and scored runs to hunt the lead down.

Rohit (20) and Rahul (22) took India to 43/0 at the stumps. They will try to wipe the remaining 56-run deficit when they turn up to bat again on day three at the Kennington Oval.

See how Twitter reacted to this game;

Umesh Yadav is bowling beautifully. He's taking wickets and it's entirely deserved – his Expected Average of 26.5 in this Test is the best of any bowler on either side. #ENGvIND

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) September 3, 2021

This is what you love about @mdsirajofficial the relentless and the effort. India get their man and the match opens up again. #IndvsEng

— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) September 3, 2021

Umesh on fire 🔥🔥🔥🔥 @y_umesh well done #IndvsEng test

— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) September 3, 2021

99 is a handy lead for England especially since India has been dismissed for 78 in the previous Test match and 191 in the first innings. #INDvsEND #IndvEng#ENGvIND #EngvsInd

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) September 3, 2021

Huge first session. India needs to keep the pressure on. Siraj and Shardul need to do a Gabba. Bumrah was on fire and Umesh some more Root balls. #IndvsEng

— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) September 3, 2021

England are ahead but they will be disappointed with the manner in which they have lost the last three wickets for, in doing so, they have kept India in the game.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 3, 2021

Well Chris Woakes has been bloody important to England in this match so far! Delivering in bowl and bat. He’s just brought up his 50. A very valuable knock. #ENGvIND

— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB) September 3, 2021

For the cricket world’s sake, England should just wrap Chris Woakes up at the end of each summer & make sure he plays every Test at home for many more years. Watching Woakes with bat and ball in England should be a specially ticketed event #EngvIND

— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) September 3, 2021

England were 62-5. You have five bowlers. But England are now 286-9, that too with Joe Root only making 21.

Tell me again… the point of playing five bowlers at the cost of a proper full-time batsman (or a world class spinner)?! #EngvInd

— Chetan Narula (@chetannarula) September 3, 2021