England rode on well-crafted centuries from Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali to finish their first innings at an imposing 537 on Day two of the opening cricket Test against India here today.

Ali and Stokes’ efforts followed Joe Root’s 124, which laid the foundation for the visitors’ big total on the first day.

Ali struck 117 and Stokes top-scored with 128 against a listless Indian bowling attack that was plundered for a whopping 139 runs in 30 overs in the pre-lunch period.

Stokes, who struck 2 sixes and 13 fours in his 235-ball knock, departed just before the scheduled tea interval and England lost their last wicket, of Zafar Ansari, for 32 during the extended second session. This was England’s third-best innings total in India.

Amit Mishra trapped Ansari leg before on the sweep shot to bring the innings to a close after England had batted for nearly 10-and-a-half hours.

Indian bowlers appeared clueless against the left-handed Stokes, who was constantly on the lookout for runs, till he was finally out to a diving catch by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha off Umesh Yadav.

Saha had earlier put down Stokes in successive overs off Yadav in his second spell, when the batsman was on 60 and 61 respectively.

India had let off rival captain Alastair Cook, debutant Haseeb Hameed and Ali yesterday and the tale of dropped catches continued on the second morning.

Post lunch, India did manage to control the run-low and also grabbed two quick wickets through the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja, who had bowled just one over in the first session.

The local boy struck in the very first over after resumption when he had Chris Woakes poking at a wide ball.

Jadeja got into his wicket-taking act again, sending back Adil Rashid who was caught at mid-on by Yadav, to leave England at 465/8.

However, New Zealand-born Stokes not only completed his century but also added 62 runs for the ninth wicket with Ansari to take the score past 500.

The 25-year-old Stokes, who was not afraid to come down the wicket to the spinners, completed the fourth century of his career with a four off Jadeja.

Jadeja emerged the most impressive bowler with figures of 3/86, while premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the most expensive and gave away 167 runs for his two wickets after bowling a marathon 46 overs.

Speedsters Mohammed Shami (2/65) and Yadav (2/112) got among the wickets.

In the morning session, the visitors scored at will after England resumed at last evening’s score of 311 for four and advanced to 450 for six.

Brief scores:

England 1st innings: 537 all out in 159.3 overs (Ben Stokes 128, Joe Root 124, Moeen Ali 117; Ravindra Jadeja 3/86, Mohammed Shami 2/65)

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