Day 2: Stumps - India in commanding position, lead England by 249 runs
Chennai, Feb 14: India placed themselves in a commanding position by stretching their overall lead to 249 runs at stumps on the second day of the second Test against England here on Sunday.
At the close of play, Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara were batting on 25 and 7 respectively, as India reached 54 for one in their second innings on a day when the English batsmen were at sea against the home team's spinners, especially Ravichandran Ashwin, who returned excellent figures of 5/43.
Thanks to senior off-spinner Ashwin's effort, India bowled out England for 134 in their first innings for a massive first-innings lead of 195 runs. India were all out for 329 in their first essay.
Debutant left-arm spinner Axar Patel picked up two wickets, including the big one of England's in-form captain Joe Root. In fact, Root turned out to be Axar's maiden Test wicket.
Lead pacer Ishant Sharma also took two wickets while there was one for Mohammed Siraj.
Wicket-keeper Ben Foakes top-scored for England with 42 not out off 107 balls even as his teammates struggled to get starts at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Earlier, India added only 29 runs to their overnight score of 300 for six as Mooen Ali finished with 4/128 and Olly Stone 3/47 after Rishabh Pant's enterprising 58 with seven fours and three sixes.
Brief Scores:
India: 329 and 54 for one in 18 overs (Rohit Sharma batting 25)
England 1st innings: 134 all out in 59.5 overs (Ben Foakes 42 not out, Ollie Pope 22, R Ashwin 5/43).
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Indo-US trade deal will destroy Indian farmers: Rahul Gandhi
Barnala (Punjab) (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the Indo-US interim trade deal will destroy Indian farmers.
Addressing the "Mazdoor Kissan Maha Rally" here, Gandhi alleged that the deal had been stalled for four months due to disagreements over the opening of the agriculture sector.
"Question arises, the work which PM did not do for four months, why did he do it within 15 minutes?" he said and asked why the trade deal was suddenly done.
Gandhi said that Modi gave a guarantee to US President Donald Trump that every year India will buy US products worth Rs 9 lakh crore.
He said that the deal will "destroy Indian farmers".
During his address, Gandhi claimed he was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha recently after the President's address because he wanted to comment on former Army Chief Manoj Naravane's memoirs.
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said he intended to refer to an unpublished book by Gen Naravane (retd), which, he claimed, described a lack of response from the political leadership during Chinese troop movements near the border.
Senior Congress leaders, including K C Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition in Punjab, Partap Singh Bajwa, former chief ministers Charanjit Singh Channi and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa and another senior leader from the state Vijay Inder Singla were present.
