After a horror first two days of the Headingley Test, Indian team finally had reasons to smile at the close of play on the third day when their batsmen finally made their presence felt and delivered a strong performance to keep England at bay, and their team on the path to progress.
India were placed at a strong position of 215/2 at the close of play on the third day with their No 3 specialist batsman Cheteshwar Pujara finally coming to the party, reaching 91 not out in the company of Virat Kohli, who was unbeaten on 45 when play was called off on Friday.
India were still a considerable distance behind England’s overall lead of 354 runs, with 139 runs more in arrears with plenty of their batting yet to come.
The start to the day was made by England who were 345 runs ahead in the first innings having bowled out India for poor total of 78 runs. The Indian bowlers did a commendable job by not allowing England batsmen to get away and bowled out the home team for a total of 423 in their first innings, which meant that their overall lead was of 354 runs.
After an embarrassing performance on the opening day with the bat, the visiting side was required to show plenty of application and intent. And they did exactly that when Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul batted together for the first 18 overs of their second essay today to lay a strong foundation for an Indian fightback on the third day.
The English bowlers kept asking questions but Rahul and Rohit did extremely well do not lose their wickets in early stages of the start. However, it was in the 19th over when when Craig Overton drew an edge off Rahul’s bat which was collected spectacularly by Jonny Bairstow in the slip cordon, which reduced India to 34/1.
Pujara has played for several County teams over the last six or seven seasons also and this is his third tour of England with the Indian team for Test cricket. For all his experience and exploits, Pujara averages less than 30 with the bat in England and he has had a torrid time himself in this series. In fact, had he not come good on Friday, it might just have been uncertain for him to find a place in the team for the fourth Test.
Like Ajinkya Rahane, Pujara is also a one-format player for the Indian team as he was required to deliver on Friday. Rather than making his traditional cautious start by consuming plenty of deliveries before starting to look for runs, Pujara cracked boundaries right from the beginning which helped India move ahead and apply some pressure back on the English bowlers.
England’s most experienced fast bowler James Anderson was absolutely and cable on the opening day of the test, but the same cannot be said for his performance in the second innings as he looked ordinary and non-threatening to the Indian batsmen at the crease.
Pujara, with his aggressive approach to batting outscored Rohit for the large part of their innings as the two remained unbeaten in the second session on Friday to help India make a strong recovery. Rohit was happy consuming a lot of balls, but his innings was cut short in the final session when Ollie Robinson trapped him in front of the wickets for 59 from 156 balls, studded with 7 fours and 1 six.
The dismissal of Rohit got Virat Kohli in the middle. The Indian captain himself has struggling desperately for big runs, but by the end of the play on Friday, the Indian run machine looked set for a big score on a pitch which is increasingly getting placid and favourable for batsmen.
Kohli reached 45 not out from 94 balls with six boundaries but it was Pujara who was the star performer with the bat for India on Friday. The right-handed batsman faced 180 balls to remain unbeaten on 91, which included as many as 15 boundaries, one which solid defied for India and kept them in hunt in the contest.
However, the job is far from done as India are still behind by 139 runs, post which any total will be the target for England to face. But India, who are 1-0 ahead in the series, would not want to give up the fight at least on the fourth day itself wherein they would like to bat all day long and secure a possible draw.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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