- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
ENGLAND showed enough intent of squaring the series against India in the Third Test which began at Headingley Carnegie, Leeds, on Wednesday (25).
Trailing 0-1 in the five-match series after losing the second match in Lord’s by 151 runs, the hosts came hard at the tourists to bowl them out for a paltry 78 in just 40.4 overs on the opening day after India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat. England looked as solid with the bat with their opening partnership of Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed putting up more than a hundred runs. Both the openers hit half centuries and England were in the driver’s seat at the end of the opening day at 120 for no loss, taking a lead of 42.
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England spearhead James Anderson, who had quite a few confrontations with the Indian players in the last match, breathed fire by taking the first three Indian wickets to end up with incredible bowling figures of eight overs, five maidens, six runs and three wickets. Among his preys were KL Rahul (0), Cheteshwar Pujara (1) and Kohli (7). The batting order could never recover from the jolt that the world’s most successful pacer in Tests gave them early on.
Craig Overton, who came into the XI to replace Mark Wood, also picked three wickets for only 14 runs in 10.4 overs.
Anderson’s opening partner Ollie Robinson took two wickets for 16 while third seamer Sam Curran claimed two for 21.
For the Indians, opener Rohit Sharma was the highest scorer with 19 which came in 105 balls while Ajinkya Rahane made 18 off 54. The duo added 35 runs for the fourth wicket in 15 overs after India lost three quick wickets but once Rahane departed off the bowling of Robinson, the visitors fell like ninepins, losing the remaining six wickets for only 22 runs.
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This is the first time India are playing a Test match at Headingley since 2002, when they defeated the Three Lions by an innings and 46 runs.
India made no changes to their playing XI for the Headingley Test while England made two. Besides Overton, Dawid Malan came in to replace an out-of-form Dom Sibley.
Brief scores: India 78 all out (Rohit Sharma 19, James Anderson 3 for 6, Craig Overton 3 for 14) vs England 120 for no loss (Rory Burns 52 not out, Haseeb Hameed 60 not out) at stumps Day 1
