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England 246 and 316 for 6 (Pope 148*, Bumrah 2-29, Ashwin 2-93) lead India 436 (Jadeja 87, Rahul 86, Jaiswal 80, Root 4-79, Rehan 2-105, Hartley 2-131) by 126 runs
After England lost four of their first five wickets in the first innings to defensive shots, you could almost imagine their coach, after whom Bazball is named, telling them it is more acceptable to get out reverse-sweeping than defending. That commitment to the sweep of various varieties brought India face to face with Bazball properly for the first time. England claimed the honours on the third day in Hyderabad, converting a first-innings deficit of 190 into a lead of 126 with four wickets in hand.
Ollie Pope’s unbeaten 148 was the biggest turnaround from the first innings during which he meekly followed the turn with his hands and edged to slip. In the second innings, he swept and reverse-swept with aplomb to mess around with the spinners’ lines and lengths and capitalise on the enterprising start provided by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett. He was rewarded with a first century in India, the highest second-innings score by a visiting batter in India since Alastair Cook’s 175 in Ahmedabad 12 years ago.
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