Dropped catches, a century from Moeen Ali, a score 400 runs after a period of three years by a visiting team on Indian soil and toil for fielders, was the highlight of the first session completely dominated by England, despite two blows from Indian bowlers. Starting the day after probably having a sleepless night, Moeen Ali completed his fourth Test century against the new ball, first one on the Indian soil. Both Ali and Stokes were operating in the right direction playing away with the spin punishing the India bowlers bowling with alien lines and lengths.
It was the generosity of Moeen Ali to leave a ball outside off from Mohammed Shami that turned the wet side, clipping away Moeen Ali’s off-stump which went flying taking 360-degree summersault providing a relief to the Indian camp. Ali, despite a soft dismissal, had done his work as a middle order batsman rescuing the team from a tough situation. A sense of rejuvenation then prevailed in Indian bowlers, as result, Umesh Yadav was able to lure Ben Stokes in his outside off trap but the slippery hands of highly rated wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha could not maintain control over the ball, giving two lives to Ben Stokes, who is now with score of 84* and is trooping towards a century with full force.
Despite watching all this from the other end, the highest run scorer of this year, Jonny Bairstow did not learn any lessons as he provided Shami with the second present of the day by edging one towards Saha who finally grabbed this one, to heave a sigh of relief.
At the time of lunch, England team was sitting on a score of 450/6. The biggest thing to note that unlike New Zealand, they are facing Indian spinners bravely, a score of 139 in 30 overs on Day 2 is enough to proof this. They are striding towards a big score with Captain Cook surely be thinking of somewhere around 600, before asking Indian batsmen to chase down.