New Delhi: The third day of the Manchester Test proved nothing short of a nightmare for India as English batters made a mockery of their bowling to gain command in the fourth Test. It was all about milestone man Joe Root who scripted record after record to put his side in the driver’s seat while Ollie Pope and skipper Ben Stokes added to the destruction.
When stumps were called on Day 3, England were placed at 544/7, leading India’s first innings score of 358 by 186 runs. Stokes was firm at the crease on a score of 77 while Liam Dawson stood unbeaten at 21 after India made some late strikes in the innings. Resuming from their overnight score of 225/2, trailing India by 133 runs at that point, the hosts added a staggering 319 runs on the sensational day losing just 5 wickets in return and accumulating a big lead over the visitors.
Pope, Root open the show
Pope and Root, who were already at the crease on late second day after Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett’s dismissal, opened the show for the hosts in the first session of the third day. Pope (71) scored a sensational half-century laced with seven boundaries to give England a prefect start on a fresh day while Root kept his diligent work running on the other end.
After joining hands with Pope for a strong partnership, Root, who scored 150 runs off 248 balls including 14 boundaries, paired up with skipper Stokes to ruin the Indian bowling attack. This was after India achieved tiny success through Washington Sundar who gave the first breakthrough of the day for the visitors in form of Pope while followed it up with another dismissal sending back dangerous Harry Brook for just 3 runs.
The deadly pair of Root and Stokes stitched a partnership of 142 runs which was the turning point of the game taking the match in England’s favour. Ravindra Jadeja came to the rescue of the side with Root’s wicket but after the damage was done. He was dismissed after scoring his 38th Test century and getting to the number two spot in the list of batters with most runs in Test cricket.
Root surpassed Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting on a single day to come next to Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar on the elite list. Meanwhile, Jamie Smith and Chris Woakes were also sent back to the pavilion on scores of 9 and 4 respectively.
While England would aim at piling their lead when they start the fourth day, India’s focus would be to get rid of the remaining three players.