After Siraj’s sharp bowling, Pujara showed courage with the bat, India’s lead was 257 runs

Birmingham | The superb bowling of Mohammad Siraj (four for 66 runs) reduced the effect of Jonny Bairstow’s (106 runs) excellent century, while Cheteshwar Pujara (50 not out) returned to the same old color, set India on the crease and gave England On the third day of the fifth Test against .

At the end of the third day’s play, India’s score was 125 for three in 45 overs. At this time, first innings century Rishabh Pant (30) was playing with Pujara. Both have shared an unbroken 50-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

Pujara, who opened the innings, held on to one end and completed the 33rd half-century of his Test career with a run against Joe Root in the last over of the day. He now hit four fours in an unbeaten innings of 139 balls.

The batsman, who returned to the team, put on 37 for the second wicket with Hanuma Vihari (11) before Pant and 32 runs for the third wicket with former captain Virat Kohli (20), Kohli once again spent time on the field. After that failed to put up a big score.

He hit four brilliant fours in his 40-ball innings and looked to be in rhythm but captain Ben Stokes (1 for 22) after taking the outer edge of his bat, spun off the wicketkeeper’s hands and stood at first slip at the hands of Joe Root. I went in Earlier, England scored 284 runs in the first innings on the basis of Jonny Bairstow’s century.

The opening session of the day was entirely in the name of Bairstow (106 runs in 140 balls), Bairstow, who struggled during the second day’s play, faced trouble during the opening 20 minutes of play on the third day. After this, former India captain Virat Kohli made some comments on Bairstow’s batting and the England batsman changed his style of play. Bairstow hits some good boundaries from mid-off and over mid-wicket.

He also hit sixes against Mohammad Siraj and Shardul. However, in the second session of the day, Siraj (4 for 66) made a comeback for the Indian team, where he took advantage of the pressure created by Mohammed Shami (2 for 78).

Bairstow scored a four against Shardul Thakur (1 for 48) and completed his Test century in his 11th and third consecutive match. After this, captain Jasprit Bumrah (3 for 68) put pressure on him by bowling tight. Due to which Bairstow, who hit 14 fours and two sixes in his innings, could score only six runs in the next 20 balls. To ease the pressure, he tried to hit a big shot and caught Kohli at slips.

After breaking the 92-run partnership of Bairstow and Sam Billings (36), Siraj took the remaining three wickets for England within 43 runs.

India had a poor start in the second innings after taking a 132-run lead in the first innings. In the very first over, James Anderson (1 for 26) walks Shubman Gill (four). In the last session of the day, Stuart Broad (1 for 38) gave India a second blow by dismissing Vihari, while Stokes took the wicket of Kohli.

After this, Pujara and Pant did not give much chances to the England bowlers and played patiently and scored runs on bad deliveries. Pant hit four fours in his 46-ball innings so far. Earlier in the day’s opening session, Bairstow shared a 66-run partnership with captain Ben Stokes (25) for the sixth wicket.

Captain Jasprit Bumrah dived off the delivery of Shardul Thakur and ended Stokes’ 36-ball innings with a brilliant catch. Before this wicket, England hit seven fours in the 33rd to 36th over of the innings and Stokes got two lives.

Shardul failed to catch the England captain’s skyscraper shot and after that Bumrah dropped a simple catch on his ball. After this, however, Bumrah did not give Stokes a chance to play big after taking a superb catch.