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          As it happened - England vs India, 4th Test, The Oval, 2nd day

          • Matt Roller
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              Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98
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          Sep 3, 2021, 06:01 PM

          It's all square at The Oval! Who's going to make strides towards a series lead? Joe Root's England or Virat Kohli's India? Follow it all on our live blog. For ball-by-ball commentary, click here. For our coverage in Hindi, click here.

          6.10pm: Rohit gets a life

          A stroke of good fortune for Rohit on 4: he edges Anderson into the cordon but Rory Burns at second slip doesn't pick the ball up at all and only realises it's coming his way very late. The chance goes begging and Rohit has grown into his innings, putting on 34 with KL Rahul. England's catching has been poor throughout most of this series.

          5.20pm: England lead by 99

          Woakes races to fifty, dominating a partnership of 35 off 40 balls for the last wicket with James Anderson, but then runs himself out to leave England with a first-innings lead of 99. That leaves 65 minutes or so for India's openers to survive tonight - and Rohit Sharma has started slightly shakily, playing-and-missing at Anderson before outside-edging into the gully on the bounce.

          4.55pm: Bumrah goes down

          Worrying moment for India: Jasprit Bumrah is on the deck and receiving some treatment from the physio. He overpitched to Woakes and was clipped for four, and immediately winced and grabbed his calf. But it seems like it's nothing more than cramp and he'll finish his over.

          4.25pm: Pope chops on

          India have started the evening session slowly but have a wicket from nowhere. Their main plan appeared to be testing Woakes with the short ball, which brought them some success in 2018, but he hit three fours in the space of four balls at the end of the first over after tea from Jasprit Bumrah.

          But Pope has now gone, chopping on for 81 which means his first-class average at The Oval drops to 99.4. Shardul Thakur replaced Bumrah and bowled an over of innocuous, wide outswingers to Woakes who was happy to leave them alone, but Pope was suckered into a shot, playing away from his body, and inside-edges onto his own stumps. The second new ball is available very soon - a well-timed breakthrough.

          3.30pm: Jadeja breaks through

          There was plenty of head-scratching yesterday when Virat Kohli explained that Ravindra Jadeja's inclusion ahead of R Ashwin was influenced by match-ups, particularly when he referenced England's four left-handed batters. But this wicket demonstrates what he was talking about. India's four seamers have predominantly bowled from over the wicket, creating some rough outside the left-handers' off stump, and Jadeja uses that to his advantage from over the wicket.

          That said, this was an awful shot from Moeen Ali. He was looking to hit Jadeja back down the ground with mid-off up - a perfectly legitimate option, but the execution was miles off, and his wipe ended up in the hands of Rohit at cover. England lead by 32 with Chris Woakes in at No. 9.

          3pm: Moeen gets a life

          An unusual moment. Jasprit Bumrah lands a yorker which Moeen Ali digs out, and nobody makes anything of it. But a replay two overs later shows that in fact, the ball hit the toe of his front boot just before it hit the bat, and would have gone onto crash into the base of leg stump. No appeal, no review, but a life for Moeen. He's put on an unbroken 50 partnership with Pope, 20 of his 22 runs coming in boundaries so far.

          2.20pm: Pope's happy homecoming

          Ollie Pope has struggled for form in Test cricket over the last 18 months but has made a slight technical tweak which appears to be helping him, as he brings up his first half-century since August 2020. He covered off stump earlier in the summer in an attempt to stop edging balls on a fifth-stump line but, similar to Bairstow now, that left him vulnerable to the nip-backer. He looks a lot more stable in his stance today than he did earlier in the summer and has scored freely all round the ground.

          This is his first Test at his home ground and he loves batting here. His average in first-class cricket for Surrey at The Oval is a shade over 100 and he looks set to push on from here.

          2pm: Siraj gets Bairstow

          Jonny Bairstow has shifted across his stumps in this series after a prolonged period when he exposed his stumps and was bowled on a regular basis. It has worked to a certain extent, but it does leave him vulnerable to the nip-backer. Mohammed Siraj managed to find a decent amount of movement in off the seam as Bairstow was late on his attempted clip to leg, with the DRS confirming that the ball would have knocked back the top of leg stump.

          That's Bairstow's third lbw dismissal in the series, and another middling innings. His scores since his recall now read: 29, 30, 57, 2, 29, 37. He appeared to be remonstrating with one of the stewards on the England balcony, seeming to suggest that there might have been some movement behind the bowler's arm.

          12.35pm: England flying

          Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow are embracing the Shane Warne doctrine of Test batting: tee off (not recklessly). India's change bowlers have been far too straight to them and they have scored with rare freedom, with 64 runs coming in a 10-over period. Pope looks in particularly good touch, creaming a straight drive back down the ground for four, and Bairstow has timed the ball brilliantly, capitalising whenever India have overpitched. A vital partnership in the context of the game.

          12.15pm: Umesh on a roll

          Check out that picture of Umesh Yadav taking flight, mouth open, zealous eyes, punching the air with a clenched right fist on Thursday evening immediately after bending back Joe Root's off stump, writes Nagraj Gollapudi. It is a brilliant picture: energetic, emotional, ecstatic. Importantly, it also captures the physicality of Yadav, easily the strongest hulk in the Indian dressing room. You would not want to face him with boxing gloves.

          Yadav is 33 but he has worked tirelessly to keep himself fit. And that is one key reason Yadav can walk out of hibernation - he last played a Test match in the last week of 2020 in Australia - and deliver compelling spells of fast bowling as he did last evening and this morning, where he combined with Jasprit Bumrah to suffocate and enervate England's top order by applying constant pressure.

          Despite playing his first Test of the series, Yadav has done everything that Bumrah has done and done it with discipline. Until the first hour of this morning both have delivered 11 overs and of the 66 balls, both Yadav and Bumrah have pitched on the stumps and the channel. While Bumrah has been the pivot the best bowler for India this series, Yadav has slipped into the saddle without breaking any sweat.

          11.10am: White smoke

          Ollie Pope is in early, with nightwatchman Craig Overton slashing a cut to Kohli at first slip. Pope has made an obvious adjustment to his game since his last Test against New Zealand earlier this summer: he took an off-stump guard during that series but is further across towards the leg side today, with his pads in front of leg stump and his bat in line with middle.

          Pope's record in first-class cricket at The Oval is frankly absurd - he averages a shade above 100 for Surrey here - but this is not a typical pitch for the ground - it's slower than usual, and there is more grass on it than you would generally expect. Pope has flattered to deceive in the last 18 months of his Test career and will be desperate to cash in on his home ground.

          10.30am: Bairstow gets the gloves back

          Jonny Bairstow took the gloves for England yesterday - Jos Buttler is missing on paternity leave - and has a big job on his hands with the bat today. He's been speaking to Sky Sports this morning.

          "It takes a bit of adapting to," he said. "To get out there and have the gloves back on was great fun. There was a bit more bounce which causes different challenges.

          "In an ideal world, yes, you'd be doing it [keeping wicket] consistently all year round but as we know, sometimes that doesn't suffice. Those basics that you go back to are the key and staying relaxed - as soon as you tense up with your upper body, that's when you get into difficult circumstances. It wobbled and it swung after the bat. It's a case of staying relaxed and relishing the challenge of a wobbling ball. There's not many nicks that do swing - normally it scrambles when you nick it - but these have gone on the axis and have swung.

          "It's a great chance - a day where we can hopefully bat through the morning session and then kick on after lunch. It is slightly different to a traditional Oval wicket. We need to get through that first hour and then it's a case of applying ourselves and going on."