Twitter Reactions: Edgbaston Test even-steven after roller coaster day

India, courtesy of Virat Kohli’s century, got themselves close to England’s first innings score of 287 after which Ravichandran Ashwin removed Alastair Cook to end their second day on a high. Going into the third day, the opening Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham was poised for more entertainment and by the close of play, the match hangs in the balance as India need 84 runs to win with five wickets remaining.

Curran shine with the willow amidst Ishant havoc

Keaton Jennings and Joe Root were the overnight batsmen, but both couldn’t survive as Ashwin accounted for the wicket of both. David Malan and Jonny Bairstow put on 31 for the fourth wicket and it took an outstanding delivery from Ishant Sharma to separate the pair when Malan perished for 20 runs. Four over later, Ishant removed Bairstow, Ben Stokes, and Jos Buttler to leave England in the shambles.

However, Adil Rashid and Sam Curran restored sanity with a much-needed stand of 48 runs, which was broken by Umesh Yadav with the wicket of Rashid. Thereafter, Curran took the attack to the opposition and played a whirlwind knock of 63 runs from 65 balls. He also whacked Ashwin and Ishant into the stands a couple of times to propel the Brits’ score to 180 runs and subsequently set India a target of 194.

Kohli and Karthik sees off the day

Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan had a daunting task ahead of them, but the former succumbed to an inswinger from Stuart Broad. The pacer got rid of Dhawan in the eighth over to put the visitors under tremendous pressure. KL Rahul threatened with a couple of boundaries but Ben Stokes nipped him out. Ajinkya Rahane’s travails continued as Sam Curran picked up his first wicket of the second innings.

Ashwin was promoted ahead of Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya and the decision seemed to pay off as he smacked three fours. But the joy was short-lived as James Anderson’s outswinger turned out to be too hot to handle for him. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli buckled down and staved off the English attack. Most importantly, he remained not out on 43 runs. Dinesh Karthik, his current partner didn’t play badly either.

Here is how Twitter reacted