England vs India, 3rd Test Review: India break past the Buttler-Stokes resistance to make it 2-1

England were 498 runs behind at the start of day 4 and even the most optimistic of fans knew it would end before the end of the day’s play. But credit Adil Rashid and James Anderson‘s grit that they denied Team India a victory on the penultimate day and took in into day 5. It didn’t last long enough and Ravichandran Ashwin cleaned the last man Anderson up on the 17th ball of the morning to seal a 203-run victory for the visitors.

It wouldn’t have been as interesting a contest had Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes not worked that resistance. They got together when Ollie Pope was dismissed pretty early in the day and the pair wasn’t separated until India took the 2nd new ball. In the end, the quality in the Indian bowling attack and the runs on board helped them snatch a comeback victory.

Understanding the mindset and morale of this Indian team coming into this Test match is extremely important. They were completely outplayed and outclassed at Lord’s. The innings defeat and every aspect including Virat Kohli’s captaincy were shredded into pieces and lambasted over the next few days.

Joe Root’s decision to ask them to bat first would’ve still worked well for England had the Indian top order not applied themselves. Coming back from a thumping by an innings and 159 runs they scored 329 runs in the first innings, for the first time, the Indian batsmen put up a really good display of themselves. There was no hurry, they backed themselves and their skills in the end, it paid rich dividends.

England slump again

Ishant Sharma who troubled both the openers late in the third evening and it didn’t take really long, just five balls for him to produce an outside edge of the forever uncertain Keaton Jennings’ bat. Alastair Cook with all sorts of questions surrounding his career didn’t last beyond Ishant’s next and nicked the one that angled in and moved away.

Stokes had an ordinary outing returning from a trial break that forced him to miss the 2nd Test with ten runs and no wickets in the first essay and a couple of scalps in the second, he wasn’t really high on confidence. Buttler too got out for 0 and 1 at Edgbaston and scored 24 at Lord’s. But in the hour of the need, they put all that behind and were up for the challenge.

That the ball didn’t do a lot in the afternoon with the sun out and the pitch slowing down aided their effort but the foundation was their discipline. Jasprit Bumrah occasionally took the ball away from him, just missed and produced edges but they didn’t carry to the fielders or flew through the vacant cordon. The duo batted together for almost four hours, all through the sunny afternoon in Nottingham.

Their 169-run partnership lasted 57.2 overs. Kohli tried most things, an uncomfortable Ravichandran Ashwin was rather forced into bowling 19 overs. He was half his original self and just couldn’t put the ball in the right areas even against the left-hander Stokes who he has dismissed six times in the past.

Ishant tried to reverse swing it, but there was hardly any, Mohammed Shami ran in and put in the effort but it didn’t have enough tail to get the better of the batsmen. Buttler’s hard work and some lovely shots helped him on the way to his maiden Test hundred. The entire English dressing room and the selectors present stood up to applaud and so did the Indians.

Kohli just grabbed the second new ball as soon as it was available. Bumrah had it in his hands immediately and needed just an over and three balls to make Buttler commit a mistake. He shoulder-armed a delivery that boomed into him, it struck him just in line and with no shot offered Chris Gaffaney raised his finger. Even the review didn’t help the wicketkeeper-batsman extend his stay.

New ball does the trick

Jonny Bairstow walked in next, it was brave of him to do that with a fractured finger but all for the sake of the team. He didn’t have any troubles with that as the very first ball he faed from Bumrah beat the outside edge of his bat, squared him up all ends and crashed into the top of his off-stump. The pacer was breathing fire now, the new ball did the trick for India and in the next, he bounced Chris Woakes out for four.

The Indian skipper choose Pandya to share the new ball from the other end and he produced success. He squared Stokes up to produce an outside edge and guess who caught it at second slip? Rahul now had six catches in the Test match.

After trying, waiting and being patient for four hours the Indians had 4 wickets in 24 minutes. Adil Rashid edged one from Bumrah and Kohli caught it at third slip, as the bowler was celebrating his five-wicket haul the umpires just checked if he was fine with the front foot and he was just marginally maybe a few micro millimetres into the line and not inside. He was denied the wicket and at 8 down, Stuart Broad and Adil Rashid weren’t just giving up, they attacked and three boundaries each to sneak in a fifty-run partnership.

Bumrah returned in the final few minutes of the day to get Broad caught once again by the man with magnetic hands. Ashwin was the man to hit the final nail in England’s coffin and the Indian team set off celebrating a remarkable victory. With that, the series is poised beautifully 2-1 going into the last two Tests, an eight days rest will give them a real chance to get off and back.

Brief Scores

Ist Innings-

India: 329 all out in 94.5 overs; (Virat Kohli 97, Ajinkya Rahane 81; James Anderson 3/64, Stuart Broad 3/72)

England: 161 all out in 38.2 overs; (Jos Buttler 39, Alastair Cook 29; Hardik Pandya 5/28, Ishant Sharma 2/32)

IInd Innings-

India: 352/7 decl in 110 overs: (Virat Kohli 103, Cheteshwar Pujara 72; Adil Rashid 3/101, Ben Stokes 2/60)

England: 317 all out in 98 overs (Jos Buttler 106, Ben Stokes 62; Jasprit Bumrah 5/84)

Result: Team India won the match by 203 runs.

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