India vs England: Fifth Test Day 2 Recap and Twitter Reactions

After an extremely promising first day, in which they had England on the back-foot at a score of 198 for 7, the Indian team let themselves down on the second day. From the get-go, Buttler showed his quality and put India on the backfoot. After that, India found it extremely difficult to break through England's lower order resistance, and when it was finally their turn to bat, the quality of Anderson, Broad, and the England bowling attack was really on show.

The day started off with Buttler and Rashid steadily building up their partnership only for Bumrah to break it and for India to think they were back on top. However, Jos Buttler went on a counterattacking onslaught on his way to 89, and was ably supported by an innings of 38 by Stuart Broad as they went on to have a 98-run 9th wicket partnership. Finally, India managed to bowl England out for 332 and begin their innings.

Barely had the innings begun when Shikhar Dhawan got out. Rahul and Pujara did well to re-build and put on a 64-run stand, but Sam Curran removed Rahul and Anderson came back into the attack to get the scalps of Pujara and Rahane. Vihari, the debutant, was able to put on a half century stand with India's captain Virat Kohli; however, late in the day, Stokes forced Kohli to edge one outside off and Pant could only survive for 8 balls before he, too, was sent back to the pavillion. At the close of play on day 2, India find themselves trailing by 158 runs with 4 wickets in hand, and they need a good performance to bring them back into the game.

---

This is what experts and fans had to say on Twitter:

Deflating day if you are an India fan. But Buttler, Anderson and Broad were just outstanding.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 8, 2018

Well as England bowled, India’s batting dismal again. Can’t be the case that batsmen need all the luck and conditiins in ther favour to succeed. What about grit, application, ambition? Rahul, Dhawan , even young Pant v disappointing

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) September 8, 2018

At the end of Day-1, India was in with a real shout. At the end of Day-2....India need a miracle to change the score line from reading 1-4 #EngvInd

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 8, 2018

Losing wickets to Ali, top order not doing enough, middle order goes kaput when needed, letting the tail wag - India have learnt nothing it seems. #ENGvIND

— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) September 8, 2018

People saying Rahane and Pujara got into form after 2-3 matches. So if they had got a couple of practice games, they would be in form right from the start of the series. This is stupidity at its highest extreme. Pujara was playing county, while Rahane was playing A games already.

— Abhishek (@Sajjanlaunda) September 8, 2018

Indian team is losing in England because of Virat Kohli's overweening attitude. He plays favourites. Not picking Pujara in the first test, playing an unfit Ashwin in the 4th, and picking up Vihari ahead of Karun Nair are but a few of these examples. Great batsman, poor leader.

— Sanjay Dixit संजय (@Sanjay_Dixit) September 7, 2018