India vs England Test 2: Ton-up Rohit Sharma sweeps Chepauk Turner as India scores 300/6

Rohit Sharma oozes class with an aesthetically pleasing 161 on a challenging track, helping India take the lead with a solid 300-for-6 opening day score against England in the second test of cricket on Saturday.

Ajinkya Rahane looked equally attractive during his 67-of-149-ball hit and the two Mumbaikars added 162 runs for the fourth wicket, making it worth the effort for the 12,000 who flocked to Chepauk as Indian cricket welcomed their fans to the stadium amid COVID. -19 pandemic.

“The key was to use good footwork. We had the strategy (on the sweep shot), we discussed the game plan on this, and we wanted to make them play to our strengths, well the plans went well, ”Rahane said at the end of the game day.

A score of more than 350 in the first innings will be equivalent to more than 550 on any other track and the dangerous presence of Rishabh Pant (33 batting) could also push India well beyond the magic number on this track. In the stumps, he had rookie Axar Patel (5) for company.

Rohit had scored six hundred tests before this hit but will be the first to admit that in terms of the conditions on offer and the quality of the attack he faced, seventh would be at the top of the list.

On a hot Saturday, Rohit did two things at once.

First, it put India in a dominant position on a court that was much harder to hit than it appeared with 18 fours and two sixes in his 231-ball knock.

Second, he put all the naysayers in their place by scoring runs when it mattered most. The team is aiming for a comeback after a crushing 227-race loss in the first round.

Joe Root was wonderful with his sweep shot during the first test, but Rohit was simply magnificent with his execution on a doubly difficult track in which he gave England spinner Moeen Ali (26-3-112-3) a lesson in controlled aggression.

The way Rohit took a big step forward off the stump to sweep the deliveries of both Moeen and Jack Leach (26-2-78-2) will not be forgotten by all who were lucky enough to witness the innings.

Rohit’s defense was spectacularly strong and the offense as safe as a safe house.

Knowing full well that the track would start to crumble as the game went by, Rohit attacked on the first try, choosing 80 runs in the first session, something that will perhaps play the biggest role in the final context of the game.

It started with a coverage by Stuart Broad and then there was a six over half-wicket by Ben Stokes.

While Captain Virat Kohli (0) was brought down by a delivery of a classic off course from Moeen, he flew off the stump and goaded him into cover only to find his defense violated.

If Rohit played those sweeps in a majestic way, Rahane was no less graceful in his drives – the front and back strokes from the pacemakers and those lovely cutting strokes from the spinners were lovely to watch.

Call it irony, Rahane chose a wrong delivery from Moeen to play the sweep and got knocked down in the process.

He reached nine limits in half a century after a sterile seven-inning streak. This was after he survived a referee howl from Anil Chaudhary.

But then, he was destined to be in the shadow of Rohit on a day when determination became his main capital.

“It’s a tough court where you don’t know whether to go forward or stay behind,” Sunil Gavaskar, who knows more than a thing or two about hitting in turners, told the air.

Leach was introduced in the ninth and Rohit perhaps remembered his firing in the second inning in the opening test.

He knew Leach’s main weapon was an extra bounce with a slight twist. He faced the Leach deliveries by putting his front leg on the stump.

This negated any chance of his stump being exposed and he could not be adjudicated leg earlier either.

Root had signed Moeen for this match in place of Dom Bess, mainly because of the prodigious twist he is expected to deliver.

However, the most veteran spinner made a cardinal mistake that occurs because of the excitement of all tweakers when they see cracks.

They try to take an extra spin instead of hitting one spot and letting the pitch do the rest.

He just helped a player like Rohit dispatch him on the turn.

It was only fitting that he hit his three-figure mark with a sweep that got him two runs and he also perished when he outplayed playing the same shot.

They were not the easiest conditions, but for the ‘Hit-Man’ of India, the difficult has always been the easiest route.

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