England vs India, 1st Test, Day 3: India Need 84 to Win with 5 Wickets in Hand

England vs India, 1st Test, Day 3 of the opening Test between India and England finished on evens stevens after a brilliant day’s play from both sides. India now needs 84 more runs to win the match and England need five more wickets.

The day began with Keaton Jennings and English skipper Joe Root beginning proceedings. England needed to play out the first over without loss of any wickets. However, it was off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who sent Jennings back to the pavilion in quick time. The ball turned just a bit and took his outside edge. Skipper Joe Root also fell to the trap of leg slip. KL Rahul was stationed in the leg slip just for that shot and Root found him out.

England vs India, 1st Test, Day 3: Wickets fell in a cluster for the home team

England was in trouble and needed a good partnership to bail them out of trouble. Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow tried to bail them out of trouble. However, a sensational spell from Ishant Sharma turned the game on its head. It was a splendid piece of bowling from the lanky speedster. He induced the edge from Malan’s bat which was brilliantly taken in the slip cordon by KL Rahul.

Bairstow fell in quick succession as he edged a relatively short of length delivery to Shikhar Dhawan in the slip. It was a poor shot to say the least. Ben Stokes also fell in the same over as again the ball went to the slip cordon. This time it was skipper Virat Kohli who held onto a brilliant catch. With that England went into lunch with the score reading 86/6 with a lead of just 99 runs.

Ishant came back and bagged his 3^rd wicket of the over post lunch. It was a good delivery which jagged back and took the outer half of Jos Buttler’s blade. Dinesh Karthik completed a straightforward catch behind the wicket. From there on it was the hero of England’s bowling line-up who came to the rescue with the bat as well. Sam Curran played a breathtaking knock which helped the hosts claw their way back into the match.

Ishant Sharma bags a fifer

It was a much-needed innings during that point in time. He smashed a quickfire 63 of 65 deliveries which were studded with nine fours and a couple of exceptional sixes. The extra cover six of Umesh Yadav was arguably the best shot of the day. Finally, Ishant completed a five-wicket haul and England were eventually bowled out for 180 in their 2^nd essay. It meant India needed to chase down 193 to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match Test series.

Read Here: England Vs India, 2018: Live Score, Live Commentary, Schedule and Where to Watch the Test Series

It was always going to be a difficult final few hours for the visiting team and it was exactly what transpired in the final two hours of the day’s play. After a partnership of 19 runs between Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay, it was Stuart Broad who provided the maiden breakthrough in the form of Vijay. He added one more in the form of Shikhar Dhawan as his problem outside the off stump continued to haunt him.

Virat Kohli-lone warrior for India 

KL Rahul and Virat Kohli tried to resurrect the innings as they stitched together a brief 25 runs stand. However, it was a peach of a delivery from Ben Stokes which induced an edge from Rahul’s bat. Ajinkya Rahane joined Kohli in the middle and the partnership desired to take India to a position of strength. However, Rahane’s woes in international cricket continued as he was dismissed of a nothing shot of the bowling of Sam Curran.

Ravichandran Ashwin has promoted up the order ahead of the likes of Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya to save the two premier batters. However, Ashwin after striking a couple of exquisite boundaries found the outside edge of his bat of the bowling of James Anderson. England was right on top and even harbored hopes of bowling India out in the final hour or so.

However, it was a resolute partnership between Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik which took India to the end of the day’s play without losing any further wickets. Karthik remained unbeaten on 17 while Kohli remained unbeaten on 43.

Brief Scores: England Vs India, Birmingham, 1st Test, Day 3:

England 1st innings 287 all-out in 89.4 overs (Joe Root 80, Jonny Bairstow 70, Ravichandran Ashwin 4/60, Mohammed Shami 3/64)

India 1st innings 274 all-out in 76 overs (Virat Kohli 149, Sam Curran 4/74)

England 2nd innings 180 all-out in 53 overs (Sam Curran 62, Ishant Sharma 5/51, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/59) 

India 2nd innings 110/5 in 36 overs (Virat Kohli 43*, Dinesh Karthik 18*, Stuart Broad 2/29)