England gave a strong reply to all their critics who were not giving them a chance to make a strong comeback in the series. The three lions displayed a dominating performance on Day 1 of the third test as they bowled out the Indians for a cheap score of 78. The chief destroyer of the innings was James Anderson who took 3 wickets in the first hour of play.
India were high on confidence after their historic performance at Lord’s. They were leading 1-0 in the series. However, the visitors always had a fragile batting line-up as India’s middle order of Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli has been inconsistent for a while. Hence, there was always extra pressure on openers and lower-middle order to score runs.
However, England were under a lot of pressure to perform. James Anderson reveals that the team’s main focus was to shut the outside noise and focus on the task at hand. This paid dividends for them as now it is next to impossible for India to make a comeback.
“We have made a conscious effort of trying to just focus on us, on what we do well and try and ignore everything else, the outside noise or wherever they might be going on, and just yet and make sure there’s a real focus on what we do well,” Anderson said after the day’s play.
Anderson glad to keep Virat Kohli quiet in the series so far
In the series, Anderson has been leading the battle between him and Virat Kohli. He has dismissed the Indian skipper for a golden duck in the first test. In the third test, he dismissed Kohli again for 7 runs. He feels England have done an excellent job of keeping him quiet. Even though he hasn’t been scoring runs in tests consistently since 2020, his past achievements are enough for oppositions to consider him a threat.
“We have had some great battles over the years. He is a fantastic player and someone you want to keep quiet as a team. Especially, in a five-match series, if he gets going he can be very disruptive.
“I think the way we have bowled to him throughout the series has been very very good. We just have to keep doing that and keep him quiet as often as we can.”
Anderson also lauded the effort of the openers Haseeb Hameed and Rory Burns who were opening for the first time together. The duo have added 120 runs for the first wicket so far. Both the openers are looking solid so far. From the start they have got, they are looking to score big.
“In a performance like that, I think it doesn’t get much better and the way the two guys played the day with the bat was outstanding, and exactly what we’ve been talking about throughout this series,” he said, hailing their opening duo’s effort.
Do you want to play Casino games online? Click here to find a range of online casino brands
Place your bets for the matches here.
If you like reading about MMA, make sure you check out MMAIndia.com
Also, follow India’s biggest arm wrestling tournament at ProPanja.com
To bet on sports, click here
ALSO READ: Tokyo Paralympics: Bhavinaben Patel books spot in the knockout stages
