Test match hanging in balance, Indian batsmen toil hard to avoid series draw

The day began with both Stokes and Bairstow being extremely cautious and watchful of Shami and Bumrah’s spell. After some time, former Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Jonny Bairstow had some fiery verbal exchange and as a result, Jonny Bairstow took off and started tonking the ball to all corners of the park. On the other hand skipper, Ben Stokes who was having difficulties facing the Indian pace battery made a desperate attempt to break free and in the process hit one up straight in the air. To India’s misfortune, Shardul Thakur made a complete mockery of the catch and dropped the chance which was nothing more than a regulation catch. 

Piling on to India’s pain, skipper Stokes and Bairstow added 66 runs for the sixth wicket. What felt even worst was the fact that skipper Bumrah dropped Stokes at mid-off again with Shardul operating. But gritty Shardul persisted with his line and length and made Stokes drive once again, for a change, Jasprit Bumrah dived to his right and grabbed a stunner to dismiss the English skipper. Jonny Bairstow carried on and went on to score a gritty hundred.

Skipper Bumrah introduced Shami into the attack who did the trick for India and dismissed Bairstow when he was batting on 106. Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal triggered an English batting collapse and the remaining 3 wickets were lost just for 41 runs. 

India secured a solid lead of 132 runs but faced a major setback straightaway in the form of Shubhman Gill who was dismissed by Jimmy Anderson first up. Pujara stayed firm on the other end but India ended up losing 2 more wickets in the form of Hanuma Vihari and Virat Kohli. Courtesy of Pujara’s half-century, India has now scored 125/3 on stumps and is leading by 257 runs.

England Playing XI: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Sam Billings, Matty Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson

India Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah