India haven’t lost art of leaving, says Pujara

Young opener Hameed Haseeb showed resilience, braving the injury and batted through the pain.

England’s prospects of battling back to square the series here, or even avoid a 2-0 deficit with two to play, were therefore beginning to recede significantly.

“I feel that the teams are fairly evenly matched”, he said, at the same time acknowledging that India were playing in their home conditions.

Earlier, England skipper Alastair Cook had won the toss and elected to bat first. The fifth and final Test is scheduled for December 16 in Chennai.

The 27-year-old, who held England’s first innings together with a classy 89, claimed three dismissals to take his overall tally in the calendar year to 68 – more than any other keeper in history.

England were bowled out for 236 runs.

Ravichandran Ashwin of India and Ravindra Jadeja of India during day 3 of the third test match between India and England held at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali on the 28th November 2016.

Bairstow added: “We’re behind the eight-ball at the moment”. Stokes’ five-wicket haul and Adil Rashid’s four wickets were the highpoints for England. Instead, they made heavy weather of their task.

Jadeja started the post lunch session in style as he hammered Chris Woakes bowling from the press box end for four boundaries in an over.

The left-handed Jadeja, who started the day on 31, took over responsibility for piloting the innings after the fall of his overnight partner Ashwin.

“We will take 270-6 at the end of day”.

Virat Kohli’s brilliance with the bat combined with spinner Jayant Yadav’s impressive showing on his debut means India are full of confidence but their talismanic captain is wary of complacency. Mohammad Shami came back with the second new ball and bent his back really well to fire in some short balls to wrap up England’s tail. Credit to India, they outplayed us. “India will comfortably win this five-match series”, Ravi Shastri said while participating in Cricket Ki Baat on India TV.

The duo was separated after Adil Rashid struck to remove Pujara (25).

Moeen Ali was next in and didn’t last long as he added his name to a growing list of England batsmen to throw away their wickets, dancing down the track to Ashwin and lobbing one to mid on.

Bairstow, who has been England’s top run-getter in Test cricket in the past one year, mixed caution with occasional aggression en route his 13th half-century in Test cricket.

Off-spinner Jayant Yadav ended Bairstow’s four-hour vigil by trapping him lbw and the batsman did not hide his disappointment at being unable to see through the day.

India needed 103 runs to win, and the hosts reached the target with eight wickets to spare in 20-2 overs.