London, Aug 17 (IANS) India's woes continued as they were tottering at 9/2 in their second innings -- trailing England by 329 runs -- at lunch on the third day's play in the fifth and final cricket Test at The Oval here on Sunday.
Earlier in the morning, England were bowled out for 486 runs shortly after an hour's play but not before taking a massive first innings lead of 338 runs. Then the hosts made sure they scalped both Indian openers Murali Vijay (2) and Gautam Gambhir (3) before going in to lunch.
Resuming the day at 385/7, the England lower order put on another 101 runs in only 11.3 overs in the first session as No. 5 Joe Root (149 not out) scored his second century of the series.
Root started the day at 92 not out and brought up his fifth Test century after which he opened up to score at more than a run a ball. However, while accelerating, Root dragged an Ishant Sharma delivery to the stumps while batting on 110.
He was on his way to the pavilion when replays showed that Ishant's left foot was over the crease, making the delivery illegal, and the 23-year-old was lucky to return to the crease.
The diminutive Yorkshireman took advantage of the situation and increased the scoring rate suddenly making his strike rate jump to a staggering 90.3. In total, he hammered 18 boundaries and a six in his 165-ball knock to bring up his third highest Test score.
He was given good support by left hander Stuart Broad who also played a quick cameo of 37 off just 21 balls to propel England to a strong total.
Night watchman Chris Jordan put on only one run on the board on Sunday before getting out for 20, and the last man in James Anderson scored only one more run before being trapped leg before wicket by Ravichandran Ashwin.
Pacer Ishant was the pick of the Indian bowlers clinching 4/96 including two wickets on Sunday, while offie Ashwin wrapped up the England innings to end with figures of 3/72.
After having been bowled out for a dismal 148, India were looking for a strong start in their second innings. But it was the same story all over again as Vijay and Gambhir perished in the first 6.1 overs, just when the skies opened up leading the umpires to call for an early lunch.
Scorecard
India (first innings) 148
England (first innings, overnight 385/7)
Alastair Cook c Vijay b Aaron 79
Sam Robson b Aaron 37
Gary Ballance c Pujara b Ashwin 64
Ian Bell c Dhoni b Sharma 7
Joe Root not out 149
Moeen Ali b Ashwin 14
Jos Buttler c Ashwin b Sharma 45
Chris Woakes c Dhoni b Kumar 0
Chris Jordan c Dhoni b Sharma 20
Stuart Broad c Kohli b Sharma 37
James Anderson lbw b Ashwin 1
Extras (b 18, lb 3, w 1, nb 11) 33
Total (all out in 116.3 overs) 486
Fall of wickets: 1-66 (Robson, 20.5 overs), 2-191 (Cook, 57.4), 3-201 (Ballance, 62.5), 4-204 (Bell, 63.1), 5-229 (Ali, 68.6), 6-309 (Buttler, 93.4), 7-318 (Woakes, 94.5), 8-400 (Jordan, 107.2), 9-463 (Broad, 113.6), 10-486 (Anderson, 116.3)Bowling:
Bhuvneshwar Kumar 24-3-86-1
Ishant Sharma 30-8-96-4
Varun Aaron 29-1-153-2
Stuart Binny 12-0-58-0
Ravichandran Ashwin 21.3-2-72-3
India (second innings)
Murali Vijay lbw b Anderson 2
Gautam Gambhir run out (Woakes) 3
Cheteshwar Pujara batting 0
Extras (lb 4) 4
Total (for two wickets in 6.1 overs) 9
Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Vijay, 4.5 overs), 2-9 (Gambhir, 6.1)
Bowling:
James Anderson 3.1-2-1-1
Stuart Broad 3-1-4-0
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