Ripleys believe it or not India after winning the toss and electing to bat were bundled out 78 at Headingley today. Leader of the pack Jimmy Anderson took 3 wickets for 6 runs in an 8 over spell to ensure 3 top-order Indian batsmen namely K L Rahul, Cheswere Pujara and Virat Kholi took a walk back to the Pavilion with just 21 runs on the board
The high-quality English seamer dragged the Indians on the front foot and got them nicking at his back of a length delivery by hitting the deck on a 6.6 meters range for which the Indians had no answer.
Virat Kholi decided to bat on a grassless pitch that offered no lateral movement but had carry and bounce, and the surface was soft upfront. The Indian top-order looked baren with only Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rehane getting double figures whilst the third-highest scorer being extras.
With the score on 21 for 3 wickets, K.L Rahul , Pujara and Kholi all being caught by Josh Buttler off Jimmy Anderson, Rehane and Rohit Sharma brought some sanity into India’s decision to bat by stitching a 35 run partnership, but Ajinkya Rehane nicked a Robinson delivery just prior to two balls to the Luncheon break straight into the safe hands of Gloves of Josh Buttler giving him his 4th catch, and Ollie Robinson his first scalp of the day.
India took Lunch on 56 for 4 wickets, a rare reading. The drama took a worse turn in the second sunny session. Rishab Pant threw his bat at a Robinson delivery outside his off stump by not executing a cut shot , and became the 5th victim of Josh Buttler off Olli Robinson.
With 58 runs on board for 5 wickets , the lone warrior Rohit Sharma brought about his dismissal when he tried to execute a slap shot towards extra cover but the extra pace from Craig Overton , sadly carried the ball into the bucket palms of Ollie Robinson at mid on.
India was in tatters with a score on 67 for 6 wickes. 67 is a number this strong batting lineup will never forget. They lost 3 more wickets in the blink of an eyelid, giving two historic opportunities to Craig Overton and Sam Curren. Mohd Sami followed Rohit Sharma, caught by Rory Burns for a duck at third slip to Overton, and in the next over a wicketless Sam Curren jumped for joy, Jadeja and Bumrah out LBW in consecutive deliveries. Disaster to state the least when Mohd Siraj was dismissed for 3 runs brilliantly caught by Joe Root in the slip cordon off Craig Overton and India were crucified for 78.
Seamers did the trick for England. 3 wickets each to Anderson and Overton and a couple each to Sam Curren and Olli Robinson. Can you get a better script?
England came into bat twenty minutes before tea and looked as though Rory Burns and Hisham Hameed were batting on a different pitch. Surprisingly Kohli opened the bowling with Ishant Sharma who started off with a ten-ball over, bowled to both sides of the wicket, and none of the Indian bowlers who looked so venomous at Lords nine days back looked dangerous to trouble the English openers. They ended the dsy on 120 for no loss in 42 overs.
England has a lead of 42 runs with all ten wickets intact, Burns 52, and Hameed on 60 .
Kohli lost the battle of Part 3 , Kholi versus Anderson, on hindsight experts feel it would have been wiser for him to have played Ravichandran Ashwin with England having 5 left-handers. Ashwin is the best off-spinner in the World , and has Test Hundreds four of them in his bag.
If India don’t get an early breakthrough today, the Joe Root factor will soon hurt them with Jhonny Bairstow, Josh Buttler, Dawin Marlen and Mohin Ali all waiting to cash in.
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