Sarfaraz Khan (56*) and Devdutt Padikkal (44*) got together to consolidate India’s position after the centurion duo of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill fell in successive overs.
Bowling for the first time in the series, it took Ben Stokes just one ball to break the partnership between Rohit and Gill as he castled his counterpart with an absolute peach – the delivery straightening ever so slightly after the inward angle to ram into the off pole. Anderson then outsmarted Gill with a nip-backer that went past the latter’s lazy poke as he was beaten on the inside edge.
From wondering when their next wicket would come to bagging both set batters in consecutive overs, England had found hope, only for Padikkal and Sarfaraz to settle in and disallow the visitors a sniff.
Brief scores: England 218 (Zak Crawley 79; Kuldeep Yadav 5-72, Ravichandran Ashwin 4-51) trail India 376/3 (Shubman Gill 110, Rohit Sharma 103, Yashasvi Jaiswal 57, Sarfaraz Khan 56*) by 158 runs
Of hundreds and celebrations! 👏 🙌
Rohit Sharma 🤝 Shubman Gill
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/jnMticF6fc #TeamIndia | #INDvENG | @ImRo45 | @ShubmanGill | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/yTZQ4dAoEe
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 8, 2024
