Watch: Mohammed Siraj castles Tom Hartley with absolute corker in Ranchi Test

England struggled with the bat during Day 1 of the fourth IND vs ENG Test match. While Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj got rid of English all-rounder Tom Hartley with an absolute ‘jaffa’.

On the third ball of the 76th over, while bowling around the wicket, the ball pitched on a good length and moved away from the batsman. Hartley was squared up as the ball beat his outside edge and went on to hit the off-stump.

Mohammed Siraj picked up his second wicket of the innings and the dismissal was more like the James Anderson wicket in the third Test match. Siraj dismissed Anderson in the same fashion where the English batter remained stranded in the crease and the ball managed to hit the stumps.

Watch – Mohammed Siraj dismisses Tom Hartley with a ‘jaffa’

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Before dismissing Tom Hartley, Mohammed Siraj got rid of England wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes for 47 runs. Foakes added 113 runs from 261 balls for the 6th wicket along with Joe Root. Mohammed Siraj anchored India’s comeback on Day 3 of the 3rd Test match, picked up four wickets, and ripped through the English lower order. Siraj ended the innings with 4/84, which was the best figures by a pace at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot.

Getting back to the match, England were off to a decent start as their openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley added up 47 runs from 57 balls for the first wicket. Duckett fell to debutant Akash Deep for 11 runs off 21 balls. Duckett was caught behind and handed over an easy catch to wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel. Akash continued his fire with the ball and dismissed Ollie Pope for a duck. The Bengal pacer was able to remove well set Crawley for 42 runs from 42 balls. He hit a total of 6 fours and 1 six during his stay at the crease.

Joe Root started to take the England innings forward and added 52 runs for the 4th wicket along with Jonny Bairstow. Bairstow was looking good but fell against Ravichandran Ashwin as he was caught in front while sweeping the ball. Bairstow got out after scoring 38 runs from 35 balls.

While the wickets continued to fell from one end, Joe Root continued to hit runs from the other end. Root brought up a welcome half-century and 108 balls. Root was getting out while he was trying to play aggressive shots, however, the latter returned back to his original orthodox technique and was able score runs. English captain Ben Stokes, also didn’t do much and got out for 3 runs from 6 balls against Ravindra Jadeja. Ben Foakes put up a decent partnership with Joe Root, however, he got dismissed to Mohammed Siraj off a beauty.

Currently, Joe Root smashed a brilliant century 219 balls, which was also the first of the series. Root was among the top batsmen to score the most runs against India in the series, however, things turned out to be opposite as he got out cheaply in the first four games. However, the Yorkshire batsman has brought up a tremendous hundred and will look forward to help England reach a big first innings total.