‘Mere Wclass spinners Ko din Bhar lollypop diye’ – Fans react as England end Day Three against India leading by 126 runs

Day Three of the ongoing first Test between India and England started with the home side having 421/7 on the board. The two-time World Test Championship finalists led by 175 runs. Despite this, they failed to add runs quickly and were bowled out for 436 after batting for an hour. Trailing by 190 runs, the Three Lions were expected to give a fight back given that the old ball didn’t trouble the batters much.

They had a decent start as Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett put together 45 runs inside 10 overs. The former was caught at slips by skipper Rohit Sharma off Ravichandran Ashwin. Ollie Pope came in and added another 68 runs for the second wicket. Duckett lost his stumps to Jasprit Bumrah in the post-lunch session. Former skipper Joe Root soon after as he was trapped lbw by the same bowler.

Ahead of the Tea break, the visitors were reduced to 163/5 with Jonny Bairstow and skipper Ben Stokes not doing much with the bat.

Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes ensured India bats again in the first Test

At 163/5, the team was trailing by 27 runs and looked like the match would end on Day Three only. However, the likes of Ollie Pope and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes put together 112 runs for the sixth wicket. Foakes was cleaned up by Axar Patel towards the end of the day. On the other hand, Patel dropped a chance of Pope when the latter was on 110.

The right-hander has managed 148 not out with Rehan Ahmed batting with him. The team has amassed 316/6 at the end of the day. 77 overs have been bowled and the second new ball is due in the next three overs. Given how the game has gone so far with the first 40-45 overs giving bowlers a chance, the Asian side would like to take the new ball. The European team has a lead of 126 runs. The home team would like to bowl out the opposition and chase down whatever target they get on the weekend.

This is how Twitter reacted