After bundling India out for 445 runs in the first innings, England started their reply with five runs on the board without even a ball bowled. For the unversed, India were hit with a five-run penalty earlier on the second day after Ravichandran Ashwin ran on the middle of the pitch. On the first day, even Ravindra Jadeja was warned for the first and last time for similar actions and hence, according to the law, the umpires penalised India for five runs during the innings.
The incident happened in the 102nd over of the game when Ashwin was also seen in animated discussion with the umpire but the latter signalled the penalty soon after that. The law states, "that area of the pitch contained within a rectangle bounded at each end by imaginary lines parallel to the popping creases and 5 ft/1.52 m in front of each, and on the sides by imaginary lines, one each side of the imaginary line joining the centres of the two middle stumps, each parallel to it and 1 ft/30.48 cm from it."
Meanwhile, the former England captain Alastair Cook has accused Ashwin of deliberately running on the pitch to disturb what has been a flat surface in Rajkot. He also stated that such a thing in generally done in the third innings when the pitch is about to break down. "Is it deliberate? Yes, it is. It's a tactical ploy that you can disturb the middle of the wicket because Ashwin wants as much help [as possible] when he can bowl. Normally, it happens in the third innings. You're 150-200 runs ahead and you think, 'just make sure you get up and down the wicket'... that was gamesmanship there, wasn't it?" Cook said on TNT Sports.
As for the match, the pitch is still extremely flat with England starting off superbly in response to India's total of 445 runs in the first innings. Ben Duckett has taken the attack to the Indian bowlers smashing a 39-ball half-century and England have also crossed the 100-run mark only in the 18th over. The ball stayed low and also turned sharply multiple times on the second day but the Indian spinners are yet to get any kind of help from the surface.
