Published 14:55 IST, February 14th 2021
PM Modi spots India-England Test match from Chennai's skies; shares 'interesting' picture
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Chennai clicked a picture of the ongoing test match between India and England from his flight on February 14.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Chennai clicked a picture of the ongoing test match between India and England from up in the air on February 14. Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister shared the picture along with a caption that read, "Caught a fleeting view of an interesting test match in Chennai." PM Modi clicked the picture while he was on a 3-hour visit to Chennai to lay the foundation stone of several important projects and to inaugurate other completed projects in the poll-bound state of Tamil Nadu. He had taken a helicopter to make it to his event venue; it's possible this is when the picture of Chepauk or the M. A. Chidambaram stadium was clicked.
Chennai Test Match: India rip England apart
Debutant Axar Patel had the dream start to his Test career as he dismissed England skipper and in-form batsman Joe Root. Ravichandran Ashwin struck thrice to remove Ben Stokes, Dom Sibley, and Daniel Lawrence, handing India the advantage right after lunch on Day 2. India will be eyeing to bowl out England by the end of Day 2 in order to gain a firmer grip on the Test and to secure a victory. India had lost the first test by a hefty margin, putting a dampner on their recent historic test match series win in Australia.
England suffered an early setback on Day 2 of the second Test at Chepauk after losing opener Rory Burns in the third ball of their innings as Ishant Sharma struck early for India in the first session. Resuming play on Sunday at 300, Rishabh Pant remained unbeaten at 58 runs as he led India to 329 runs before they were bowled out. While Moeen Ali picked two wickets off his first over in the day, India's innings were wrapped up by pacer Olly Stone as he dismissed Kuldeep and Siraj. England are at 118 runs at the loss of 8 wickets in seven overs at the time of the publishing of this story.
India dominate proceedings on Day 1
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, opener Rohit Sharma (161) and Ajinkya Rahane batted well on a difficult surface after the hosts had lost their top-order even before breaching the three-figure mark. After both the set batsmen were dismissed, it appeared as if India would suffer a batting collapse after Ravichandran Ashwin also followed with just 13 runs to his name. Nonetheless, Pant had other ideas as he went after the English bowlers. He was unbeaten at 33 including five boundaries and a maximum as India's scorecard read 300/6 at stumps on Day 1. This is a must-win contest for Team India in order to stay alive in the four-match series. More importantly, the Virat Kohli-led side cannot afford to lose another match in this series as it will end their chances of playing the ICC World Test Championship final at the 'Mecca of Cricket' Lord's between June 18-22 against New Zealand.
Updated 14:55 IST, February 14th 2021