England bowlers put hosts in driving seat in third Test against India

England bowlers put the hosts side in the driving seat as they reduced India to 323-8, 246 runs behind England's total of 569-7 declared and 47 short of avoiding the follow-on, after three days of the third Test in Southampton.

The hosts bowlers backed up their side's batting skills in the first innings, with Stuart Broad claiming three wickets, James Anderson adding two to the one he took on day two and Moeen Ali taking two of his own.

Ajinkya Rahane, who should have been given out on eight, resisted for 54, while Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni remained unbeaten on 50, The BBC reported.

However, Indian batsmen were not able to put up a good show against England's bowling attack, with all of the top order who batted on Tuesday falling after passing 20.

That is to take nothing away from an England bowling unit that has so often been below par this summer, none more so than in the second Test defeat at Lord's which handed the tourists a 1-0 series lead.

Broad said that the dream world would have been to bowl India out on day three, but they claimed eight wickets on what is still a really good batting wicket. He added that before this Test England had a really good sit-down to get clarity on what they are trying to do.

It was Anderson, swinging the ball both ways, who struck to remove two important threats. The first came just after lunch when Kohli, who had classily moved to his highest score of the summer, succumbed to a probing line and edged to Alastair Cook at first slip, which was followed by Anderson swinging the second new ball into Jadeja's pads to end a counter-attacking 31, later in the day.

Broad claimed Cheteshwar Pujara's and Vijay Murali, who was India's highest scorer of the series and Ali claimed both Rahane's and Sharma's wicket either side of tea.