Cricket News: Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul star on day 3 as England trail by 70 runs. The pair put together 50 runs before Rahul missed out on a century by 16 runs. Jadeja then batted with the tail to score an invaluable 56 off just 86 balls. Jasprit Bumrah scored a quick fire 28 off 34 balls to take India's 1st innings score tally to 278.
KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant continued batting on day 3. Pant started to attack the bowlers after settling in. The Wicketkeeper hit a boundary and a six in back to back balls off Ollie Robinson but hit one straight to cover in the very next ball. KL Rahul for the second time was dropped off Anderson's bowling this time by Joe Root at second slip. Jadeja and KL Rahul steadied the ship but Rahul just missed his hundred after edging a James Anderson ball. Shardul Thakur was dismissed shortly after not troubling the scorers at all. Mohammed Shami swung his bat quite a bit and was successful a few times.
Also read: Learnt from my last England tour, challenging to face Anderson, Broad: Rahul
As for England Ollie Robinson got his maiden international five wicket haul. James Anderson surpassed Anil Kumble to become the 3rd highest wicket taker in the history of test cricket with 617 wickets.
England started the second innings 95 runs behind India. Rory Burns and Dom Sibley gave England a good start by putting 25 runs on the board.
If there is a result at the end of day 5 it will most likely be in India's favour. With rain forecasted for the entire day 4 and the first half of day 5, a draw is the most likely result. India's pace quadrant will have to conjure a major batting collapse to win the game for the blues.
Indian tailenders were under heavy criticism for not contributing with the bat before the series. The bowlers led by Jasprit Bumrah answered the criticism by adding 48 valuable runs with the bat. Bumrah has worked particularly well on his batting skills to help his team.
Veteran Stuart Broad had a rare bad day on the field. The Pacer failed to pick up a wicket in his 20 overs and gave away runs at the rate of 3.50 per over. All-rounder Sam Curran bowled only 15 overs, majority of them were to India's tail who very comfortably dealt with him.
Player of the day: Ravindra Jadeja
Jadeja justified his selection in the team with a solid batting performance. The All-rounder scored 56 runs after coming into bat at number 7. In his initial partnership with KL Rahul, Jadeja was very watchful and didn't take any chances but then started to play his strokes while batting with the tail. Going into day 4, Virat Kohli might want to get a few overs with the ball from Jadeja to see if the pitch produces any turn. The rain might have played a part in that. Jadeja can prove lethal if the pitch does start assisting spin.
