India stare at innings defeat in 2nd Test vs Eng; 66/6 at tea

London: India were staring at an innings defeat in the second Test against England after another batting failure left them struggling at 66 for six as early tea was taken due to rain on day four here.

India trail by another 223 runs.

Stuart Broad took 4-16 and destroyed the Indian middle order in the second hour after lunch.

Cheteshwar Pujara (17) and Ajinkya Rahane (13) had started watchfully after the lunch break and they looked to eat up as many deliveries as possible.

Chris Woakes (0-17) had an entertaining contest with Rahane, but the batsman prevailed for a little while. The bowling changes worked though as England's relentless pace attack again benefitted from overcast conditions.

Rahane was the first to go, playing at a wide delivery off Broad in the 19th over as Keaton Jennings held a sharp catch at third slip.

Skipper Virat Kohli (17), struggling with a stiff back, came out to bat as India reached 50 in the 26th over. He was clearly restricted in his movement and stroke making, and received on-field attention before being dismissed.

Broad then pulled out an inswinger that deflected off Pujara's pad and crashed into the off-stump, ending his 87-ball stay.

Four overs later, Broad struck twice. First, Kohli was caught at forward short leg, with DRS detecting a faint glove as the ball bounced off his jumper. Immediately, another quick inswinger saw Dinesh Karthik trapped lbw for a first-ball duck.

Ravichandran Ashwin (0) fended off his hat-trick ball, and thereafter just hung on with Hardik Pandya (1) for company as a 0-2 score-line loomed large over India.

Rain had provided some relief to India also earlier in the day as early lunch was taken when they were struggling at 17-2 in nine overs.

This was after England declared their first innings at 396-7 in 88.1 overs), taking a 289-run lead. India were bowled out for 107 runs in their first innings.

Starting from overnight 357-6, England looked for some quick runs in this morning session. But they didn't come so easily as Mohammed Shami (3-96) bowled a very sharp spell.

He beat Chris Woakes (137 not out) and Sam Curran (40) on a number of occasions, but was unlucky to not induce any edges at all.

The runs came in a trickle, but when it started drizzling a bit, Curran threw his bat around. When he was finally out caught at third man off Hardik Pandya (3-66), England declared their innings close for fear of more rain.

India then got off to another poor start. James Anderson (2-9) had Murali Vijay (0) caught behind in the third over. This was his 100th Test wicket at Lord's.

Vijay became the sixth Indian batsman to score a pair' in a Test, and he has now managed only 128 runs in 10 overseas innings against South Africa and England in 2018.

Fur overs later, Anderson trapped KL Rahul (10) plumb lbw and the batsman walked off without even checking for DRS.