England amass 233-run lead after brilliant middle-order fightback

VIEW MATCH CENTRE

Nor could they contain Jos Buttler’s immense talent. The 27-year old played wonderfully for his knock of 69, and led a middle-order charge that dragged his side from the doldrums into a position of relative strength.

England will resume on day four on 260/8 with a lead of 233, and should Sam Curran and Stuart Broad accumulate more runs in the morning, then India will have a stiff challenge ahead if they are to remain hopeful of winning this series.

Should the home side be skittled in the early knockings of tomorrow’s play, then they must lean on events at Edgbaston last month as evidence that they can hold their nerve and defend a gettable total against any Kohli-led charge.

England have their middle-order engine room of Buttler and Ben Stokes to thank for their position of moderate comfort. Coming together with their side floundering on 122/5, just 95 ahead, a 56-run stand for the sixth wicket wrenched the initiative in their favour, and set the basis for another stylish, but stoic Buttler half-century.

Buttler has enjoyed an immense year in all forms of the game. After 17 Tests spread across five years, he was picked at the start of England’s Test summer and now appears to be establishing himself as a potent force in the five-day game. A maiden century in the third Test followed here by a crucial 69, is only further evidence of how important England’s vice-captain is becoming to this line-up.

Stokes may boast a career strike-rate of 60 but here he was scoring at below half that figure, choosing to dig in against Ravichandran Ashwin in particular. Their duel was one of the many highlights from a gripping, simmering day’s cricket, and Ashwin would get his man for a painstaking 110-ball 30.

But Stokes, having joined the fray seeking to avert a mini-slump, had done his job.

Mohammed Shami had bookended the lunch interval with the wickets of first Keaton Jennings for a stolid 36, and then Jonny Bairstow. An explosive late-seaming in-ducker to the very first ball of the afternoon session – Bairstow has made just 6 and 0 in this match – had reduced England to 92/4 when Stokes joined Joe Root.

Just 65 ahead, England were tottering, while Root was desperately searching for rhythm and form. He has endured a challenging summer to date. In at No.3 for the summer so far, a place above his preferred position, he chose the second innings here to shift himself down a slot, giving Moeen Ali the chance to express himself at first-drop.

On the back of a double-century in county cricket last week and a breezy 40 in the first innings, Moeen had been considered as a counter-attacking option. But here he couldn’t deliver, soon edging Ishant Sharma to KL Rahul, who took yet another superb low catch.

Root, meanwhile, was scrapping manfully to post a score and had played stubbornly for his 48 before he was caught unawares by a quick single called by Stokes.

On his heels, Root found himself a yard short of the crease at the keeper’s end as Shami’s direct hit gave the third umpire the easiest of tasks. Root didn’t even bother to dive, dragging himself off the field to reflect on a run-out when well-set for the second time in the series. He is still looking for his first Test century since August last year.

Stokes was then joined by Buttler, the latter quickly over-taking the former’s run-tally as they negotiated the Indian attack in quite contrasting manners. Their seemingly imperturbable partnership began to swing momentum in the favour of England, but it was broken shortly after reaching the 50-mark.

Stokes struck an awfully frustrated figure following his dismissal, sent back to the pavilion after facing over a century of deliveries when he skewed out an Ashwin Yorker, Ajinkya Rahane doing the rest, catching well low to his left in the cordon.

First innings batting hero Sam Curran, on his return to the side, was the next man in, and once again he looked almost too accomplished for a 20-year old bowler-cum-middle-order batter in just his third Test.

He and Buttler batted swiftly and effectively for what became another vital middle-order stand for the hosts, notching 55 between them before Buttler was finally undone lbw by a hooping Sharma (2/36) in-swinger.

Proceedings were cut short when Rashid (11) snicked off to Shami (3/53) in the final over the day. Curran remained unscathed on 37, and with a lead of 233 on the board, there is still work for England to do to put this game out of sight. As it stands, it could easily swing either way.

On a scuffed pitch that took turn throughout the day, England’s spin twins of Moeen Ali, who took a first-innings five-for, and the leg-spinner Adil Rashid, will be expected to get through a lot of work when it becomes England’s time to bowl, while the seam attack will seek to exploit reverse-swinging conditions.