India ended the lunch session with 82 runs on the board for the loss of three wickets against England. Virat Kohli once again called the wrong side of the coin and Joe Root decided to put the visitors into bat after winning the toss. In fact, the Indian openers who have failed to get going in the Test series provided a good start.
Shikhar Dhawan who was drafted in place of out of form, Murali Vijay scored a fine 35. It was all hunky-dory for the Indian team as Dhawan and KL Rahul put together an alliance of 60 runs. In fact, this was India’s best opening partnership in the Test series.
England bounces back after India’s good start.
However, Chris Woakes who the hero in the second Test match at Lord’s was able to break the good opening stand. Woakes was able to move one away to get Dhawan’s outside edge which was caught safely by Jos Buttler. Furthermore, England all-rounder did more damage as he plumbed KL Rahul in front of the wickets.
Rahul didn’t want to take the review as there was no bat. However, Cheteshwar Pujara thought that the ball might go on to miss the stumps and pushed Rahul to go for the review.
It was three reds on the Hawkeye and thus India not only lost their second wickets but also a review. In fact, England also lost one review when they decided to send one upstairs against Virat Kohli
Therefore, Chris Woakes was able to do damage to a good start of Indian openers. However, Cheteshwar Pujara played a straight shot to the throat of Adil Rashid at the stroke of lunch. Woakes was able to take his third wicket as Pujara was left shell-shocked.
Brief Scores: India 82-3, Shikhar Dhawan 35 (65).
Chris Woakes 3-18