England started the second Test just as they had the first, by winning the toss and putting India in to bat. The plan was to make inroads before the last, vague vestige of green was burned from the surface and it so nearly came good during an opening spell from Chris Woakes that brought the wicket of KL Rahul but also two marginal umpire decisions that both favoured that batting side. “On a day like this, it is frustrating,” Woakes said. “It was a good day but it felt like a day that could have been so different.”
Twice batters were saved on umpire’s call when England reviewed on-field decisions of not out – first in the seventh over, with India 14 without loss, when Yashasvi Jaiswal was reprieved, and then in the 11th, when they were 21 for one, with Karun Nair the beneficiary. On both occasions DRS technology showed the ball going on to hit the stumps, but not by enough for the TV umpire to reverse the decisions taken by the Bangladeshi umpire Sharfuddoula. Jaiswal went on to score another 75 runs and Nair another 26 before the India captain, Shubman Gill, scored an unbeaten 114 to take his team to 310 for five at stumps.
