Ind vs Eng 1st Test Day 3 Highlights: Kohli, Karthik take India to 110/5

Pacer Ishant Sharma took five wickets and spinner R Ashwin three as England added 171 runs to their overnight score of nine for one. India need 126 runs to win

Chasing 194 to win the first cricket Test against England, India were 110 for five at stumps on day three at Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham on Friday. In a shaky start, India lost five batsmen before skipper Virat Kohli (43) and Dinesh Karthik (18) combined for a crucial unbeaten sixth-wicket partnership. If India manage to overhaul the target, it will be their only seventh Test win on the England soil and 1^st win at Edgbaston.

Catch 1st Day 4 live action here

Earlier, Pacer Ishant Sharma ran through the middle order for a five-wicket haul but Sam Curran's fighting 63-run knock helped England set India a tricky 194-run target. Ishant (5/51) took his eighth five-for while R Ashwin (3/59) and Umesh Yadav (2/20) shared the other five wickets as England were bowled out for 180 at the stroke of tea. India had England on mat at one stage as they had reduced England to 87 for seven but 20-year-old all-rounder Curran took the centre stage by scoring 63 runs off 65 balls and delayed India's victory march. Curran put on 48 runs with Adil Rashid (16) for the eighth wicket. It was the only passage of play on Day 3 wherein English batsmen looked comfortable at the crease as Indian bowlers searched desperately for a breakthrough. Curran played with maturity that belied his young age. Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan dropped Adil Rashid at first slip off Umesh Yadav. 

India vs England 1st Test Day 3 Scorecard

In pics: India second innings wickets

India vs England 1st Test Day 3: Final session; India 110/5 at Stumps

• England pacers, led by Stuart Broad, gobbled up half the Indian batting line up under favourable overcast conditions as the visiting batsmen were either reckless with their shot selection or got too good deliveries to counter in the final session of Day 3.
• Virat Kohli, who turned it around for India in the first innings with a combative 149, now stands between victory and defeat for the visitors.
• The defiant Indian captain, who saw his batting colleagues perishing one after another, was batting on 43 and giving him company was a disciplined Dinesh Karthik (18) when the stumps were drawn for the day.
• They added 32 runs for the unbeaten sixth wicket, playing with maturity.
• The Test still hangs in balance with the first session tomorrow holding key for both the sides.
• England did not have to wait long for their first breakthroughs as Broad (2/29) trapped Vijay and had Shikhar Dhawan (13) caught behind.
• KL Rahul (13) did not look too comfortable at the crease, and fell to Ben Stokes (1/25) just as his third-wicket partnership with Kohli was starting to take shape.
• Kohli survived a hairy lbw shout against Sam Curran (1/17), but DRS showed the ball sailing over middle stump. But the left-arm young pacer was able to nab Ajinkya Rahane (2), caught behind shortly afterwards.
• India tried a different approach to stop the downcurve, and R Ashwin (13) came out to bat at number five. He lasted less than four overs before Anderson came back to turn the game in England's favour once again.
• Karthik and Kohli though dug in deep, especially the former, and made sure that the seesawing game went into the fourth day

In pics: Virat Kohli on the crease

India vs England 1st Test Day 3: Post lunch session report

• India had England on mat at one stage as they had reduced England to 87 for seven but 20-year-old all-rounder Curran took the centre stage by scoring 63 runs off 65 balls and delayed India's victory march.
• Post lunch, Ishant did not allow Jos Buttler (1) to get settled, nicking him off on the second ball after resumption of play.
• In doing so, he put on 48 runs with Adil Rashid (16) for the eighth wicket. It was the only passage of play on this third day wherein English batsmen looked comfortable at the crease as Indian bowlers searched desperately for a breakthrough.
• Curran played with maturity that belied his young age. It did not help that Shikhar Dhawan dropped Rashid at slip off Yadav. Their partnership looked good for many more, but a heavy cloud stopped play for approximately 16 minutes as bad light forced the players in.
• No rain came, and shortly on resumption, Yadav cleaned up Rashid's off-stump in the 45th over. Sensing closure of the innings, Curran attacked the bowling, hitting sixes off both Sharma and Ashwin, as he reached his maiden Test half-century at a run-a-ball gallop.
• Curran stood out as he took the attack to the opposition bowlers by going after them. He was not even afraid of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, whose venomous spin fell the top three English batsmen.
• Curran did get some help from Stuart Broad, who scored 11 off 28 deliveries. The youngster continued his assault on the Indians. India saw a couple of edges not getting into the hands of the fielders.
• He shielded both senior partners Stuart Broad (11) and James Anderson (0) ably, but Sharma eventually broke through as the English innings came to an end.
• Then, Curran's innings ended when his cut off a short and wide delivery from Umesh went into the hands of Karthik, bringing an end to the second innings of England, who have a 13-run lead after posting 287.

India vs England 1st Test Day 3: First session report

• Starting from overnight 9 for 1, England did not get much respite as Ashwin bowled non-stop from one end after dismissing Alastair Cook (0) previously on Thursday evening.
• The left-handed batsman in the English line-up looked easy fodder for him as the wicket started taking a lot more turn this morning. In the eighth over, Keaton Jennings (8) was the first to go with KL Rahul taking a sharp catch at leg slip.
• Joe Root (14) held the key to England's second innings, and eventual course of the game, but Ashwin etched out the big wicket eight overs later. He broke the budding 21-run partnership between him and Dawid Malan (20) as Rahul held another excellent, low catch at leg slip.
• It could have gotten worse, as Jonny Bairstow's (28) first shot also landed close to Rahul's hand.
• Three overs later, Malan (on 17) got a life when Shikhar Dhawan failed to latch on to a low catch at first slip off Sharma. But the left-hander never looked comfortable at the crease with Sharma constantly troubling him.
• Malan and Root added 31 runs for the fourth wicket, and pushed England past 50 in the 17th over. The former looked to play more conservatively, while Bairstow opened up a bit to score at any opportunity he got.
• Just when it looked that they were getting comfortable at the crease, Sharma struck a quick triple blow.
• Rahane caught first Malan at fourth slip in the 27th over. Then in the last over before lunch, Sharma struck twice to dismiss Bairstow, caught at first slip, and Ben Stokes (6), caught at third slip, in the space of three balls.
• England were completely rocked with only the tail left to play with Buttler, as they had no reply to Indian bowlers' intensity.

In pics: How Root got out, (Root c Rahul b Ashwin 14(35) [4s-1])

 

What England need to do on Day 3?
 
England went to stumps on Day 2 at a score of 9/1, with Ravichandran Ashwin rattling Alastair Cook's off-stump off the last delivery of the day. The day, however, belongs to Virat Kohli, who fought against the odds to bring up his maiden century in England while almost single-handedly rescuing India from dire straits to help his side post a respectable total. With Cook disappointing yet again in the dying minutes of the day, England will have to count once again on Joe Root playing the anchor's role and building partnerships around him. More importantly, the home team will need their middle order to show more character in the second innings after the collapse in the first if they are to post a score in excess of 300, one that might just turn out to be a match-winning one for them.
 
How Virat Kohli escaped the ghost of 2014?

When Kohli last visited England in 2014, he scored just 134 runs in 10 innings and on Day 2 he scored 149 in one innings to show his class and somewhat he proved that he is world’s best batsmen in present time. During his 149-run knock, Kohli did struggle early on in the innings while facing the bowling of James Anderson and Sam Curran and was even dropped in the slip cordon by Dawid Malan while batting on 21. However, he did not let the bowlers get to his head and took on them with aplomb as he patiently scored a century. He kept losing wickets at the other end as none of the other batsmen managed to cross the 30-run mark. Towards the end of the innings, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav played second fiddle and stood around at the crease for a long time, despite scoring just 5 and 1 respectively. To put things in perspective, 92 runs came off the last two wickets and Ishant and Umesh just scored 6 of those. Kohli managed to keep strike for the majority of the deliveries and hit the boundaries whenever he got a chance.
 
Read India vs England 1^st Test Day 2, session by session here
 
India's record at Edgbaston cricket ground
 
When it comes to Edgbaston, there is nothing but painful memories for the Indian cricket team, as far as Test cricket is concerned. India's record at Edgbaston is exceptionally poor with five losses in six Tests stretching back to 1967. The last time India played a Test match at this venue was in 2011 and it was a masterclass from England opener Alastair Cook that guided the hosts to victory.
 
This time around Virat Kohli must avoid the mistakes made while picking the playing eleven like he did in the previous overseas tour to South Africa. There, the team management had backed an in-form Rohit Sharma over Ajinkya Rahane. This time around, an in-form KL Rahul is bidding for a spot. Both Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri have maintained that as a third-choice opener, Rahul must wait for his chance. But the fit-again batsman's fine form might just compel them.

 
 
When and where to watch England vs India, 1st Test 2018, Day 3
 
Match date: 1 August - 5 August 2018
 
Match timing: 3:30 pm (IST), 10:00 am (GMT), 11:00 am (Local time)
 
Match venue: Edgbaston, Birmingham, England
 
India vs England 1st Test 2018 Day 3 live streaming details
 
India vs England 1st Test Day 3 proceedings will be broadcasted on Sony Six, Sony Six HD in English Commentary. India vs England 1st Test, Day 3 will be available for live streaming on Sony Liv app. Tatasky subscribers can also live stream India vs England 1st match, Day 3 on Tatasky mobile app.
 
India vs England head-to-head comparison in Test matches
 
In England
 
Matches played: 57
 
India won: 6
 
England won: 30
 
Drawn: 21
 

Here are the playing 11 of both the teams: 

India playing 11: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, K L Rahul, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma

England Playing 11: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root, Dawid Malan, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow Sam Curran, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.

Here is some cricket news and who said what ahead of India vs England 1^st test Day 3
 
Virat's flexible approach and pursuit of excellence set him apart, says Sanjay Bangar: Virat Kohli's flexible approach to batting and relentless pursuit of excellence enabled the Indian captain to script a spectacular turnaround and score his maiden hundred on English soil, said assistant coach Sanjay Bangar. "I would say that this innings showed different facets of Virat's batting. The main thing is that Virat is flexible about his batting approach. Most of the batters are not flexible when it comes to changing technique or approach. But Virat in this respect is different, said Bangar after stumps on day two. "He showed terrific discipline I felt. At no instance did he reach out for the ball, and probably couple of our other batsmen reached out, which caused their downfall. But that is something, which we've been speaking of, practicing quite a lot. And on days, these things come off and on certain days those things don't come out as a batter." Kohli's drive to improve with every innings sets him apart, said Bangar. "Nowadays we see video analysis of each and every player. Opposition can easily put finger on what lacunae a particular player has. So you have to know your shortcomings, keep working on it and stay a step ahead. Virat's pursuit is for excellence and he keeps working on his craft. So this knock gives immense satisfaction to him, the former India all-rounder said.
 
What Sam Curran said about Virat Kohli century: England all-rounder Sam Curran said attempting to halt Indian captain Virat Kohli on Day 2 of first Test against India was an eye-opening experience. "Credit to him for a great inning. That's what Test cricket is about, I'm only in my second game but it was an eye-opener," he said. "It wasn't ideal losing Cook at the end - that ball will get most players out - but we bowled them out below our total and it's going to be a great Test match. We have to put runs on board and then put India under pressure. "Personally, it was pretty special. I can't really remember it. "It's a pretty cool feeling for me to be playing with my heroes, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, and running in to bowl to a guy like Kohli. It's a great learning curve."
 
How cricketing world reacted to Virat Kohli’s Century