England vs India, 3rd Test Day 4: India on the Verge of a Historic Victory, Need Just One Wicket

Team India are on the verge a famous victory by runs against England in the 3^rd Test at Nottingham to make the scoreline 2-1. It was an utterly dominant performance by the visitors which was definitely not on the cards especially given their below-par performance in the previous Test in Lord’s. It was a splendid spell of hostile fast bowling by Jasprit Bumrah which eventually handed India the victory late on Day 4 of the Test.

For the first time in the series, India batted superbly which was instrumental behind their memorable victory. After being put into bat first, the visiting team registered an impressive 329 on the board under testing conditions. Riding on the back of a brilliant partnership between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya  Rahane which turned out to be one of the most vital talking points of the match.

Captain Kohli missed out on a well deserved century by just 3 runs. Rahane also missed his century falling for a well made 81. England started off in an impressive manner. The opening duo of Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings shared a 54 runs stand before wickets started falling in a heap. Ishant Sharma provided the maiden breakthrough followed by Jasprit Bumrah’s 1^st wicket in the match.

Hardik Pandya produced a magical spell of swing bowling and returned with figures of 5/28. It was a splendid effort to say the least from the youngster. He bowled full and it took him just 6 overs to bag his 5 wickets. They were eventually bowled out for 161 in just 38.2 overs. India was quite brilliant with the bat the 2^nd time around.

Virat Kohli got 2^nd time lucky and went onto smash his 23^rd Test ton as India piled on 352/7 before declaring their innings. Cheteshwar Pujara also scored a composed 72 as India gave England an unlikely victory target of 521 to chase in the 4^th innings. It was Ishant Sharma who provided the maiden breakthrough of Keaton Jennings.

Ishant added the 2^nd in a matter of minutes. After a brief partnership Joe Root and Ollie Pope fell in consecutive deliveries as England stared down a defeat. From there o it was a sensational partnership between Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes which ignited hopes for an English comeback. However, the target was way too much and they needed to bat one full day more.

Buttler smashed his maiden Test century. It was an exhibition of strokeplay by the swashbuckling wicket-keeper batsman. However, after his wicket by Jasprit Bumrah with the 2^nd new ball, India applied the breaks on England and bagged 4 wickets in just 24 minutes. After dismissing Buttler, Bumrah rattled the stumps of Jonny Bairstow in the very next delivery. It was a top class delivery which would have rattled the stumps of many.

He also bounced out Chris Woakes with a good rising delivery. Hardik Pandya then came into the act with the wicket of Ben Stokes to make things worse for England. Bumrah finally achieved his 2^nd five-wicket haul in his 4^th Test when he dismissed Stuart Broad. Adil Rashid and James Anderson played out the last few overs to take the match to Day 5.