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After dominating for almost the entire first session of Day 3, a moment of hesitation is all it took for Rishabh Pant to lose his wicket on 74 runs. A terrible mix-up between Pant and KL Rahul lead to a run-out and saw the former depart back to the pavilion thanks to a direct hit from England captain Ben Stokes. Following the fall of the big wicket, the session came to an end.
Pant had sustained a finger injury during England's innings
After hurting his left index finger during England's innings, Pant fought through the pain and looked set to bring up his third century of the series. However, after playing a fiery knock laced with eight boundaries and two maximums, the 27-year-old lost his wicket due to an unnecessary run-out.
The decision to take the run was heavily inspired by Rahul, who was batting on 98 at that time and with the last over of the session being bowled, he would have wanted to complete his hundred before heading into the break. However, this plan backfired badly and resulted in the end of Pant's stay at the crease.
Legendary India cricketer Anil Kumble was highly critical of the run-out and recalled how Joe Root was left unbeaten on 99 when the first day of the ongoing Test at Lord's came to an end, and had to wait for a day to register his century.
"I think initially Rishabh Pant called and then hesitated, thinking that there was no run. And then KL was off the blocks straight away. So Rishabh Pant’s initial hesitation probably delayed his response. And then he had to take off because KL was just running straight through and on target. This was unnecessary, for sure, because you could have just blocked the next three balls, gone to lunch, and then do whatever you had to, or continued the great work that both these batters did in that first session," Kumble said on JioHotstar.
“This wasn't needed. Joe Root had to wait for one night. He was on 99, he had to come back the next day. They had done so well; it was a fantastic partnership. It allowed England some confidence going into the second session,” he added.
Meanwhile, Rahul eventually went on to reach his century as the second session commenced. However, he wasn't able to go quite far from there and was dismissed by spinner Shoaib Bashir for 100. The dismissals of both Pant and Rahul mounted pressure on the rest of the remaining Indian batters, however the duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy played brilliantly against the England's bowling attack.
The two would ensure that no wickets would fall for the visitors for the remainder of the session and they went into the break after taking India's total to 316/5. Jadeja is batting on 40 while Reddy is unbeaten on 25 and the Men in Blue now trail England by just 71 runs ahead of the final session of the third day.
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