Sharma’s landmark hundred puts India on top against England

LONDON: Rohit Sharma scored his first Test century outside of India as the tourists continued to frustrate England at the Oval on Saturday.India were 199-1 in their second innings at tea on the third day of the fourth Test, exactly 100 runs ahead of England’s first-innings 290.Sharma was 103 not out and CheteshwarPujara 48 not out, with the pair having so far shared an unbroken partnership for the second wicket of 116, with the five-match series intriguingly poised at 1-1.Opening batsman Sharma may have been missed twice in the slips by Rory Burns but few would begrudge the 34-year-old what was his eighth century in 43 Tests and first in 25 overseas.

Having taken 145 balls to reach the slowest half-century of his Test career, Rohit expertly went up through the gears and needed just 59 more deliveries to complete a 204-ball hundred.Sharma reached the landmark in style, lofting off-spinner Moeen Ali for a superb six over long-on that accompanied 12 fours.Meanwhile Pujara, fresh from his 91 in England’s innings and 76-run win in the third Test at Headingley, provided excellent support after overcoming an ankle injury that required several minutes’ on-field treatment.India resumed Saturday on 43-0 in overcast conditions that appeared to favour England’s quicks, albeit the pitch was a good one on which to bat.Sharma, having seen an edge on four off James Anderson strike Burns on the boot at second slip, was 20 not out, with Rahul 22 not out after England batsman Ollie Pope had made 81 on his Surrey home ground and Chris Woakes, also returning to Test cricket, exactly 50.England great Anderson and Woakes, who took 4-55 in the first innings of what was the Warwickshire all-rounder’s first Test in over a year, opened the attack.The grey skies above the Oval did not stop Sharma, who’d already made two fifties this series, including 83 in India’s 151-run win in the second Test at Lord’s, driving Anderson’s sixth ball of the day down the ground for a superb boundary.

When Woakes, dropped short, Rahul hooked him for six over long leg to go to 41.Next ball, however, Woakes reverted to a fuller length and Rahul was given out lbw only for the verdict to be overturned on review.England’s fallible slip catching was evident again when Sharma, on 33, edged Ollie Robinson only for a diving Burns to floor a right-handed catch — the hosts’ sixth drop of the match.But after more than an hour without an England breakthrough, Anderson already Test cricket’s most successful fast bowler, took his 632nd wicket at this level when he got one to nip away off the seam to Rahul, who edged to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.England’s raucous appeal was turned down by umpire Alex Wharf but a review revealed a thin edge, with India now 83-1.There was a worrying moment for India when Pujara, having punched the often wayward Craig Overton for four, twisted his left ankle.

But after a prolonged delay, in which his ankle was strapped, Pujara quite deliberately uppercut Woakes over the slips to an unguarded boundary at third man.There were no ‘nervous 90s’ for Sharma against an England attack missing the express pace of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. A one-legged pull — a shot made famous by West Indies opening great Gordon Greenidge — for four off Anderson took Sharma to 94 before he went down the pitch to drive Moeen into the pavilion.