After early reprieves, Shubman Gill stood out with his first Test ton in 11 months to help India post 255 and set a target of 399 for Ben Stokes’ England. After veteran England pacer James Anderson’s two early blows, young spinners helped England make a comeback and cause a collapse to bowl the hosts out in the third session of Day 2.
Starting the Day 3 at 28/0, skipper Rohit Sharma got bowled by Anderson with a peach of a delivery. He scored 13 runs from 21 balls. In his next over, he forced an edge off Yashasvi Jaiswal's bat which landed in Joe Root's hands. After two reviews went Gill's way, he shrugged off the fidgety start. He used his feet against spinners and asserted dominance. He wasn't afraid of taking the aerial route. On the other end, Shreyas Iyer curbed his natural instinct to attack. Gill reached his half-century from 60 deliveries.
In the 28th over, Iyer lost his wicket to Tom Hartley. Stokes sprinted outside the 30-yard circle to take an excellent catch. He scored 29 runs from 52 balls including a couple of boundaries. Debutant Rajat Patidar had another unlucky dismissal. The lack of bounce got the better of him and he edged one to Ben Foakes off Rehan Ahmed's bowling. India were 130/4 after the end of the first session. Meanwhile, Joe Root injured his right hand's little finger and did not take the field.
After the first session, Gill took on Ahmed and hit him for a six and two fours. Axar Patel justified the promotion up the order and negotiated well against the spinners. Gill reached his century in the 52nd over from 132 balls. A couple of overs later, Stokes' field placement caused confusion in Gill's mind as he went for the reverse sweep but got caught by Foakes. His 104 off 147 balls included 11 fours and a couple of sixes. Then Hartley got the wicket of Patel after Stokes once again made a few field changes. He scored 45 runs from 84 balls including six fours.
After the tea break, Ahmed struck in the first over to dismiss wicketkeeper-batter Srikar Bharat for a single-digit score. In the next over, Hartley dismissed Kuldeep Yadav for a five-ball duck as he went for a slog-sweep but could only manage a thick top edge. Ashwin got a second chance as his catch was dropped by Zak Crawley. He denied singles to Jasprit Bumrah. Ashwin took on Ahmed and hit him for a six followed by a four. Before the new ball was dew, Hartley and Ahmed dismissed Bumrah and Ashwin respectively to bowl out the hosts for 255. Ashwin contributed with a 61-ball 29.
Interestingly, no team has managed to score more than 200 runs in the run chase at the venue. Also, the highest run chase on Indian soil belongs to the hosts when they chased down 387 against England in Chennai in 2008.
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