The Indian tour of England is turning out to be an absorbing and keenly contested series. Starting with a draw, India prevailed in the send test with an emphatic win that sent confidence of the players (and fans) soaring. However the third test at Headingly, Leeds didn’t go quite as planned for the Indian men in blue. Skipper Virat Kohli’s form (or lack thereof) came in for a lot to social media trolling.
Kohli won the toss for a change and opted to bat. However, the toss of the coin did not prove advantageous in this instance.
The Indian batsmen were all out for 78. India’s much vaunted batting order collapsed like a pack of cards.
Only Rohit Sharma (19 off 105 balls) and Ajinkya Rahane (18 off 54) made it to double figures. Kohli made 7.
KL Rahul was out for a duck, Pujara made 1 run, Rishabh Pant made 2 and Ravindra Jadeja made 4.
This went on for a while – Ishant Sharma scored a run more than him in India’s first innings, so this didn’t seem unwarranted.
The English top order performed well with each of the four top batsmen digging in with half centuries or more.
The skipper led from the front with his century.
His 121 cemented the English team’s advantage in the match.
With the massive first innings lead that England had, India were always going to struggle --- and did.
Where is the rain when we need it! India were dismissed for 278. India lost by an innings and 76 runs.
He proved to be India’s nemesis; claiming two wickets in the first innings and 5 in the second.
He snapped up the wickets of Rohit Sharma (59), Cheteshwar Pujara (91), Virat Kohli (55), Rishabh Pant (1) and Ishant Sharma (2) and was declared Man of the Match.
He is waiting for his 71st century; has been for a while.
This is not a statistic we want to see.
While Kohli was being praised and feted for his captaincy and aggression in the second test, he is now the recipient of brickbats for his decisions in the third test.
The third India England test has been pretty bitter for the Indians; a humiliating defeat handed to the men in Blue on day four of the test. With both teams having one test each, the fourth test that begins on 2 September is likely to be a riveting contest, followed by the fifth test on 10th September 2021.
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