England might have bottled up their decent start in the first day, but they did manage to instill scare and an aura of uncertainty over India when the visitors came on to bat. After bowling England over for 287 runs, the Indian opening pair of Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan endured a shaky start.

Sam Curran dismissed both of them, as the pacer ensured that he scathed the top-heavy Indian lineup. The move of benching Cheteshwar Pujara in favor of KL Rahul backfired to some extent too, as Curran bowled him in just his second delivery.

After India scored just 59 runs at the loss of three wickets, Virat Kohli demonstrated to world cricket that he had the mettle, and the required technique to excel in English conditions too. He made minor adjustments to his stance, often coming out o the crease before the release of the delivery to negate the late swing as such.

Despite losing the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Dinesh Karthik on the other end, Kohli maintained his composure and patience, while also making the utmost advantage of a couple of dropped catches in his favor. Kohli reduced the trail by stitching valuable partnerships with the lower- middle order batsmen, particularly with the likes of Hardik Pandya and Umesh Yadav.

 Kohli went absolutely berserk after his century, as he took the game to the opposition and counter-attack to add 49 more runs to his tally. He was finally dismissed by Adil Rashid, but Kohli had already reduced England’s lead to 13 runs. Moreover, R Ashwin managed to remove Alastair Cook, giving India an early advantage going into the third day’s play.

This was not only Kohli’s first century knock in a Trest match in England, but Ben Stokes registered his 100^th scalp in Test matches too. Earlier, Jos Buttler walked away from the pitch owing to an injury on his left-middle finger. The English team would surely wait for the final reports from the scans. However, Kohli’s temperamentally strong innings would surely be remembered.

 

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