Pujara and Kohli frustrate English bowlers

After getting completely demolished in the first innings, India are battling hard to stay in contention in the third Test. 

India has been behind in the third Test ever since they got bowled out for 78 in the first innings.

However, they are making their way back into the match after closing out the English batting lineup for 432 runs.

Then, they batted quite well till the end of the day’s play with a score of 215/2. Currently, India trails by 139 runs.

England still in the driving seat 

If you ask the England cricket fans, they will be disappointed with the way their team folded in the second part of the innings.

They started the day’s play with a scoreline of 423 runs with two wickets remaining. Most importantly, they had a lead of 345 runs. 

England were only able to add nine more runs to their total as they got dismissed for 432 runs with a lead of 354 runs.

Mohammad Shami removed Craig Overton by having him leg before wicket.

Then, Bumrah knocked out Robinson to complete England’s first innings.

In the bowling department, Shami continued to impress as he bagged four wickets with one of them coming on Day 3 of the third test.

Bumrah, Siraj, and Ravindra Jadeja all grabbed a couple of wickets each to close out the English batting line-up.

Kohli, Pujara keep India’s hopes alive

Many expected England to continue the good bowling form that they have shown for most of this test series.

After their bowling master class in the first innings, they couldn’t maintain their levels as India counter-attacked. 

After grabbing three wickets in the first innings, English fans expected James Anderson to continue showing his excellence in the twilight of his career.

However, he wasn’t able to maintain those standards.

The Indian innings couldn’t have started any worse with KL Rahul struggling to get any kind of momentum going.

After being wrongly judged LBW which got overturned by VAR, he was caught by Bairstow off Overton’s bowling. He could only register 8 runs off 54 balls. 

After that, India started to show some positivity in their batting.

Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara started to find the middle of the bat as they displayed sweet strokes to leave England’s seamers frustrated.

Sharma and Pujara established an 82-run partnership before the opener got trapped in front of the wickets against Robinson. The right-handed batsman scored 59 runs.

Virat Kohli has been under massive scrutiny over the past few years.

Despite being massively off-color not just in this series but in 2021, he has started his innings well.

Pujara scored his 30th test half-century with a boundary.

In his innings so far, Pujara has secured 15 boundaries. On the other hand, the Indian captain has also shown his intent by scoring five boundaries so far in his innings. 

In a complete turn of events to the first day, it has been a day of hard work for the English bowlers.

They have been on the receiving end of brilliant shot-making from Sharma, Pujara, and Kohli.

They have just not been able to capitalize on their lead as India try to close out the trailing score.

Both Pujara and Kohli are not out at 91 and 45 respectively. They have built a partnership of 99 runs so far.