Hardik’s magical spell put India on top

Hardik Pandya produced one of the most memorable spell ever produced by any Indian pacer in recent times as he picked up 5 wickets for 28 runs, forcing England to wrap up the innings for 161 giving India much needed 168 run first innings lead.

Post Lunch, Indian pace quartet ran riot. So dominating the scene, that Ravichandran Ashwin was not even pressed into the service.

Hardik bowled full and each of his deliveries were wicket taking one as England continued to lose wickets in regular interval after the lunch and there were hardly

A spirited spell by old warhorse Ishant Sharma and Jaspit Burmah seen India making slow inroads into the third test at Trent Bridge and soon Mohammed Sammi also joined the party.

As the Bumrah and Ishant removed top order, Cook (29), Jennings (20) and Pope (10) in quick succession, Hardik cleaned up the middle order. Buttler (37) towards the end did provide some entertainment but it was not for long. In fact Buttler was the highest scorer.

In fact the England batsmen were not allowed to take control of the situation and systemically they were removed by some tight bowling. The bowlers kept the ball up and strangulated the English batsmen in the off stump corridor forcing all the three batsmen to give caught behind as Rishabh picked up each of them cleanly.

Earlier Broad and Anderson quickly mopped the Indian tail as the visitors folded their first innings at 329, adding just 22 runs. Hardik's departure on the last ball of the 1^st day made all the difference as Rishabh Pant and Ashwin could not push forward as Broad and Anderson duo proved too much for them.

Broad, Anderson and all rounder Wokes returned three wickets apiece while Rashid claimed one wicket.

Score in Brief : England 161; India 329 all out.