Indians 306 for 9 (Rahul 101 retired out, Jadeja 75, Miles 3-42) vs County Select XI
In the early exchanges, when the bounce was variable and the County XI attack was threatening Rahul played close to his body and with soft hands.
Then he grew more fluent. When Warwickshire seamer Craig Miles cramped him with a short delivery that darted in from outside off, Rahul still managed to get on top of the ball and glide it past gully for four. Then, when Miles overcorrected his length, Rahul confidently planted his front foot forward and eased him straight down the ground for four. Rahul also got on top of Avesh Khan who, along with allrounder Washington Sundar was turning out for County Select XI after James Bracey, identified as a contact of a Covid-positive case, and Zak Chappell, out injured, were pulled out of the squad. This game retains first-class status despite the last-minute personnel shuffle.
Khan left the field during his third over after lunch after hurting his thumb intercepting a drive from Hanuma Vihari. Rahul, however, went on to bring up his fifty off 75 balls, with Jadeja happy to ride in his slipstream.
Rahul disrupted the spinners by taking regular trips down the pitch. Liam Patterson-White was belted over mid-off while Jack Carson was hoisted over midwicket. He marched into the nineties with another down-the-track biff off Carson and reached the century off 149 balls with a whipped four off Patterson-White’s dart-it-in left-arm fingerspin.
After Rahul retired out, Jadeja got to a fifty of his own and just when he seemed ready to step up into a higher gear, he holed out to deep backward square leg off the second new ball. The Indians lost their last four wickets for 20 and closed out the day at 306 for 9.
The top order had suffered a similar wobble in the morning. After taking ten balls to get off the mark under fairly cloudy skies, stand-in captain Rohit Sharma, who was featuring in his 100th first-class game, flapped a top-edged pull to be dismissed for 9 off 33 balls. Agarwal then fell in familiar fashion when an inswinger burst through his weak defences. The ball clattered into his middle and leg stumps before he could bring the bat down from a high backlift. The likes of Trent Boult, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc had bested him with similar incoming deliveries on India’s most recent tours.
Cheteshwar Pujara then succumbed to a stumping for only the second time in his entire professional career, Carson performing the magic trick and picking up his 50th first-class victim. Vihari, slotting in at No.4, dug in for nearly 90 minutes before running out of patience and skewing Patterson-White to extra-cover for 24. Rahul and Jadeja took over after that.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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