Twitter Reactions: Virat Kohli's stupendous knock brings the Test match in balance

Alastair Cook's wicket at the stroke of stumps may have given India the edge.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

View : 20.4K

2 Min Read

Alastair Cook
info
England batsman Alastair Cook is bowled by Ashwin. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Virat Kohli arguably played the best Test innings of his career. Only if one of the top order batsmen would’ve supported him, India would’ve been bossing the game at the end of the second day of what has been a fascinating Test match so far. Nevertheless, the visitors are well and truly in the contest and the Edgbaston Test is poised nicely. England toiled hard for the last couple of wickets but they were denied by a truly magnificent knock.

India started the day well by picking the remaining wicket of the opposition as England were bundled out for 287 runs. Then came the turn of the openers to provide them with a solid start. The duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay negated the new ball well and added 50 runs for the opening wicket.

When the talks of India posting a big total began to surface, Sam Curran nipped one back in sharply and caught the latter in front of the stumps to start a sensational turnaround. The ball was suddenly doing the tricks and in no time. they were reduced to 59/3. KL Rahul and Dhawan were also sent back by the same bowler. Even Ajinkya Rahane played a needless shot outside the off-stump and Dinesh Karthik was castled by Ben Stokes to leave India reeling at 100/5.

Kohli settles slowly

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli went past a probing spell of James Anderson who was intent on making life difficult for him. The intriguing battle was almost won by the bowler when he was on 21 after finally inducing an edge of his bat, but Dawid Malan dropped an absolute dolly. Hardik Pandya also was reprieved and then began the rebuilding process. The Indian skipper first added 48 runs with him but lost Ravi Ashwin and Mohammed Shami early which left 182/8.

This is when he took complete control of the innings denying singles to the tailender Ishant Sharma. Slowly but steadily he started playing authoritative strokes and kept the scoreboard ticking. The 35-run stand for the ninth wicket was threatening but Adil Rashid‘s googly proved to be the undoing of the stubborn Ishant who should’ve reviewed the decision.

At 216/9, England would’ve thought of batting soon and stretching the lead. But Kohli had other ideas. He first notched up his 22nd Test ton and then kept toying with the bowling attack. He was keen on keeping the strike and somehow managed to pick up a single off the fifth or sixth delivery of every over. It was an exhibition of a patience mixed with aggression as Kohli raced on to 149 in no time.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to play a fierce cut short, he was dismissed by Rashid and a never-ending stand of 57 runs for the last wicket was broken. But he had done his job of nullifying England’s lead which had come down to a meagre 13.

To make matters worse, Ravi Ashwin dismissed Alastair Cook the same way he did in the first innings to bring India into the ascendancy by stumps. Twitterati was absolutely on its feet throughout the day and they flooded social media with their tweets.

Here’s how they reacted during the day:

 

Get every cricket updates! Follow Us:

googletelegraminstagramwhatsappyoutubethreadstwitter

Download Our App

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS and Google Play Store
England