After a valiant display at Lord’s, that saw India going up 1-0 in the series, things turned ugly in the third Test as they were dismantled for a modest 78 in the first innings that laid the bedrock of England’s leveler. Despite Kohli offering a lot of hope on day three, his heroics were short-lived on day 4.
England batted beautifully to amass a 354 runs lead as they posted 432 on the cards. Joe Root and Dawid Malan, Haseeb Hameed and Rory Burns were simply breathtaking, and they laid the Indian bowling bare open until Shami came up with a strong response to snuff out England’s life force.
Despite a good-looking start from the Indian openers, things shortly spiraled out of control as KL Rahul once again fell for cheap, and it needed some heroic batting from Rohit Sharma and Pujara to help India fight back.
The duo posted a decent display of 82 runs for the second wicket before Ollie Robinson got the better of Hitman. Virat Kohli arrived in the middle to join forces with Pujara and the couple got along well to inflict damage upon the English bowlers.
They stuck together for the remaining of yesterday’s play and took India to 215 for the loss of 2. However, as soon as the fourth day began and India had to face the new ball from James Anderson, it proved to be India’s unravelling.
Kohli suffered the same fate on Day 4 of the third Test
Despite Kohli exhibiting a lot of promise yesterday, he once again got out in the same fashion as Ollie Robinson bowled a delivery on the off-stump that was angling in and the Indian captain in an effort to defend his timber nicked it to Joe Root.
It has been sore eyesight for the Indian fans to watch their captain repeatedly getting out in the same fashion without anything new coming to the fore. Being a batsman of tremendous character, it is expected that he will come up with something different in every passing innings.
Sadly, for him, it has been the same story. Ollie Robinson came up with England’s strategy for Kohli, and it was more or less crystal clear for everyone by now. He was heard citing, “It’s a simple plan to Virat, bowl on the fourth and fifth stump, get it to angle away, and hope he nicks it, and he did.”
Robinson was adjudged as the man of the match after his incredible fifer against India in the second innings while he also managed a couple of wickets in the first innings to leave India destabilized.
