India put up a remarkable resistance in the ongoing Leeds Test against England with a resilient knock of 91 by Cheteshwar Pujara. India were 215-2 at the end of the third day’s play with Pujara and skipper Virat Kohli on the crease. India are currently trailing England by 139 runs after being bowled out for just 78 runs in the first innings.
India started day three on a positive note as Rohit Sharma made a gutsy fifty. Sharma made 59 in 156 balls. Only two wickets to fall during the whole day of play were of Sharma and KL Rahul (8).
Pujara and Kohli have added 99 runs for the third wicket. Kohli, who remained unbeaten at 45 at the end of day three, looked comfortable with the bat and appears set to score big.
While Ollie Robinson and Craig Overton shared a wicket each, James Anderson failed to extract much from an insipid Headingley pitch.
With two days remaining in the match, England are still favourites to win the Test to level the series 1-1. But both Pujara and Kohli can ruin their party if they continue to build on their partnership when the play resumes on the fourth day.
Speaking about the third day’s play, Overton told BBC, “It was an attritional day and we’ve got the new ball in the morning, so hopefully we can start well, get a couple of early ones, and they are under pressure again. “We’ve just got to make the most of the new ball, because it will do a little bit off the surface, and then stick in for the rest of the day.”
Rohit Sharma, for his part, said, “We are very much behind in the game but to come out and put that partnership together was really important for us as a batting unit.
“We didn’t bat that well in the first innings. It wasn’t a 78 all out pitch. We batted poorly, and we have a great opportunity tomorrow to correct our mistakes.”