Day 3: India in strong position despite Bairstow ton

India were in a commanding position in the 5th Test vs England at Edgbaston.

They are heading into Day 4 with a 257 run lead and 7 wickets in hand.

Cheteshwar Pujara was unbeaten on 50 and Pant was on 30 not out.

England cave in

England finished at 284 runs in response to India’s 418.

Though they finished 132 runs behind, it’s a score they will be happy with after being 83/5 at one moment.

Jonny Bairstow was the standout performer in the England batting lineup as he smashed 106.

The innings continued Bairstow’s golden run of form and included 14 boundaries and 2 sixes.

Bairstow’s innings had 2 phases. In the first phase, he was totally subdued as Bumrah and Shami peppered him with an array of swinging unplayable deliveries.

After he had missed a shot, Kohli sledged him saying – Faster than Southee, eh?, alluding to the New Zealand bowling attack whom Bairstow had destroyed a week before.

This seemed to awaken Bairstow and he suddenly changed gears.

He pulled out his repertoire of attacking strokes and went after the Indian bowlers, particularly Siraj.

Eventually, Bairstow caught by Virat Kohli bowled by Mohammed Shami after scoring what was probably his finest Test century.

Stuart Broad contributed just 1 off 5 balls before getting caught by Rishabh Pant off Mohammed Siraj.

England were rescued by 2 vital late order partnerships for the sixth and seventh wickets.

Bairstow along with Stokes stitched a 66-run partnership for the sixth wicket.

Next, he added 92 runs for the seventh wicket with Sam Billings who showed admirable composure in testing conditions.

The wicket of Ben Stokes for 25 was vital.

He was caught by Bumrah off the bowling of Shardul Thakur, the man with the golden arm.

Stokes had been dropped two times but the Indians held on to the catch the third time.

Mohammed Siraj took four wickets while skipper Jasprit Bumrah took three as India bowled out England on 284.

Gill fails again

England struck early in the very first over as Shubman Gill was caught by Crawley off a trademark Jimmy Anderson out-swinger.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuman Vihari steaded the ship for India after Shubman Gill’s early dismissal.

After blunting the England pacers for a while, Vihari was caught by Bairstow bowled by Stuart Broad for 11 off 44 deliveries.

Virat Kohli made a strong start before a short-pitched delivery from Ben Stokes gave him his marching orders.

it was an unlucky dismissal as the ball was keeping low but this one bounced and caught Kohli off-guard.

Pujara (50) scored his fifty in the final over of the day, while Rishabh Pant also remained unbeaten on 30.

Pujara’s knock consumed 139 balls and it was a brilliant innings in challenging conditions.

He has smacked 5 boundaries on his way to the 50-run mark.

The partnership between Pant and Pujara is already worth 50 runs off 91 balls.

India’s game plan will be to extend this partnership with Pant doing the scoring and Pujara holding up the other end.

If the pair put on another 50 runs, it will create the perfect launch pad for Jadeja and Thakur to add some quick runs.

India will probably look to add another 150 runs before asking England to bat.