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Live Report - India vs England, 1st Test, Chennai, 3rd day

Written by 
Published in Cricket
Saturday, 06 February 2021 22:09

Welcome to our live report of the third day of the first India-England Test from Chennai. Join us for updates, analysis and colour. You can find our traditional ball-by-ball commentary here

*Most recent entry will appear at the top, please refresh your page for the latest updates. All times are local.

11.30am: Lunch - India 59 for 2 (Pujara 20*, Kohli 4*, Archer 2-25)

No doubt that this was England's session. Shubman Gill looked in fine touch throughout his innings of 29 but chipped an on-drive towards mid-on off Archer, where Anderson dived to take an excellent catch to leave India two wickets down before lunch. The spotlight this afternoon will be on Bess and Leach, and whether they can find the rhythm and consistency that will trouble Kohli and Pujara, but Root will play all of his cards, including short bursts from Archer, bouncer barrages from Stokes and Anderson bowling dry.

Stokes was briefly limping in his follow-through immediately before the interval, which is one to keep an eye on. It would be a significant blow to England's hopes for him to aggravate any injury.

11.05am: Funky fields

Joe Root has often displayed his willingness to get creative with bowling plans in the last 12 months or so, and he has set an intriguing field for Stokes' first over. There's no slip in place for Pujara, but there is a leg gully, a short leg, and two midwicket fielders, as Stokes goes round the wicket looking to bang the ball into the pitch and possibly hit some of the rough outside leg stump. For Gill, the leg gully moves out, but there are three men out in the deep on the leg side on the pull.

Root has often used Stokes in this 'enforcer' role, asking him to toil away bowling short. Archer might have one or two more overs left in his first spell before we see spin for the first time in the innings.

10.40am: Archer strikes

England have the early wicket that they would have craved so desperately. Jofra Archer, operating around the 87mph/140kph mark, beat both Gill and Rohit inside his first seven balls with legcutters which moved appreciably away from the bat, and a similar ball accounts for Rohit. Back of a length, in the channel outside off stump, and enough movement away off the seam to take the outside edge of Rohit's back-foot poke on its way through to Buttler.

10.10am: England 578 all out

Anderson lines up a sweep off Ashwin but is bowled, as the final wicket eventually falls. Ashwin bowled a whopping 55.1 overs in all, the most in an innings in his Test career, and finished up with 3 for 146. Bumrah and Ishant's figures were both creditable too, but Nadeem and Sundar's combined figures - 70-6-265-2 - tell the story of the innings. England were able to milk them, picking up boundaries far too often and rotating the strike at will. England will be hoping desperately that Bess and Leach don't suffer the same problems.

9.55am: Where was the new ball?

India take the third new ball after 185.2 overs - 24.2 overs after it was due - and Jasprit Bumrah strikes immediately, trapping Dom Bess lbw with a ball that nipped in appreciably off the seam. The obvious question that follows is: what took them so long? The old ball was reversing at times, and perhaps they were worried about the ball coming onto the bat, but neither Bess nor Leach is particularly attacking by the standards of tailenders.

9.15am: England bat on

Just in case you thought you might be tuning into India's first innings shortly, Ben Stokes rubbished that idea overnight. "No thoughts of a declaration tonight," he said. "That would be stupid after winning the toss. In India you get as many runs as you can. If we can bat an hour tomorrow, we'll be happy." As a result, Dom Bess and Jack Leach will resume their partnership shortly.

Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98

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