Twitter Reactions: India toil hard as Jos Buttler ensures England nose ahead

England started the day still 21 runs in deficit and both their openers at the crease. The ball was expected to swing early on but it didn’t. Life wasn’t easy for Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings but they were still there. The partnership was broken in the 13th over when Cook edged Jasprit Bumrah to KL Rahul at third slip. The incoming batsmen found the going tough.

It was Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah who got them the first two wickets. Adil Rashid promoted to No.3 was out cheap, skipper Joe Root then dug in and wanted to make this innings count. Jennings meanwhile was on his way back and Jonny Bairstow was out for a first ball duck losing his leg-stump to Mohammed Shami. The right-arm pacer now had two in two and there was the lunch break in between. After batting well and living on the line for a while, Root was run out for an unnecessary run, just two short of his half century.

Ben Stokes once again worked hard for his runs and didn’t get plenty of them before being dismissed. Stokes before that shared another crucial partnership with Jos Buttler. After the all-rounder got out, Buttler stuck in there and found an able partner in Sam Curran. England’s new No.8 seems to really enjoy batting against India.

While Moeen Ali got the ball to turn a lot and troubled the right-handers picking a five-wicket haul, Ravichandran Ashwin couldn’t deliver at par with the expectations. He did hold one end up toiling through. Ashwin bowled 35 overs in the innings and got the ball to turn and bounce. He tried to do a lot of things and it didn’t work out. It was almost certain that the pressure of Moeen’s performance had a negative impact on him.

Towards the end, India got the big scalp of Buttler with the second new ball, Ishant got the one to swing into him and hit in front. Shami got an outside edge off Adil Rashi’s bat in the last over and England went back home with 260 runs on the board for 8 wickets and a lead of 233 runs.

Here is how Twitterati reacted to all the action on day 3: