Stokes ton puts England in command of first Test

Ben Stokes' last three Test innings against India in 2014, yielded three ducks. He made amends for his earlier failures in England, by scoring his fourth ton, which guided his side to a sizable first-innings score of 537 in their first Test against India in Rajkot on Thursday.

India took the new ball at the start of play on the second day in a bid to make early inroads, but the hosts were up against Moeen Ali, only a run away from his fourth Test ton and Stokes batting confidently on 19.

It took Ali just three balls to reach the milestone as he dabbed as short ball from Mohammad Shami past point for a single. Ali then switched gears in an attempt to push the tempo and smashed Umesh Yadav for three fours from the second over of the day. Stokes joined in on the boundary frenzy and thumped two fours in the next two overs.

Ali made a rare error in the 100th over the innings, when he left a straight delivery from Shami, which rattled the stumps. India hoped that his dismissal would prompt a collapse. But they were wrong as Jonny Bairstow joined forces with Stokes to steal the session from the hosts.

The duo added 99 runs for the sixth wicket from 21.1 overs and scored at a brisk rate of 4.67. India compounded their own woes by dropping Stokes twice, Wriddhiman Saha, the wicket keeper, the culprit. Stokes took advantage of the dropped chances and ripped every bad ball apart. He took 11 runs off Ravindra Jadeja's first over of the day, then repeatedly targeted R Ashwin the moment he dropped short. Stokes added a brutal 65 off 95 in the session.

Stokes, in the post-lunch session, adopted a more cautious approach as he approached his ton. He took little over 12 overs to reach the milestone, which he did by muscling Jadeja through the cover-point region for four. It was Stokes' first ton in India. His four centuries have come in four different continents - Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia.

His innings, along with centuries from Joe Root and Ali, helped the tourists post a massive 537 in their innings, which is the highest total England has scored in India since 1985, when they had scored 652 for 7 in Chennai during the 1984-85 tour. This is also the first time since 2009 when three batsmen from a visiting team scored centuries in the same innings in India. In the 2009 Test, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene amassed tons at Motera in 2008-09.