Five-star Sharma leaves India eyeing victory in England series opener

Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma has said that the Indian captain’s first Test century in England was the result of a balance between skill and fitness.

England was 87 for seven at one stage, before Sam Curran launched a spirited counterattack, scoring a 65-ball 63. However, as many expected, the Indian batsmen fell like ninepins in the second innings too.

England were powerless to stop Kohli, although he was twice dropped in the slips – on 21 and 51.

The arrival of wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik after the fall of Ravichandran Ashwin calmed some nerves in the Indian camp, with the duo putting on an unbeaten 32 runs partnership for the sixth wicket. “The support from them was outstanding”, Kohli added. So far, Englandhavedropped four catches in this match.

Shikhar Dhawan (13) nicked Broad to make it 22-2 before Ben Stokes, Curran and Jimmy Anderson enticed edges to remove Lokesh Rahul (13), Ajinkya Rahane (2) and Ashwin (13) and leave India 78-5.

Lokesh Rahul dispatched his first ball to the boundary, but dragged his second from Curran on to his stumps.

Ashwin walks down the track but only gets an edge on the ball as it races past third slip for a FOUR. Karthik and Kohli though dug in deep, especially the former, and made sure that the seesawing game went into the fourth day.

“He’s obviously got a little bit of fight in him as well”.

The 20-year-old No 8 Curran’s impressive batting effort came just a day after the Surrey left-arm swing bowler had taken Test-best figures of four for 74. And when Englishmen like Nasser Hussain and David Lloyd start referring to that Flintoff show to explain a bowling performance, you can rest assured the bowler concerned has done something exceptional.

Young Curran, though, was in no mood to give up. Including highlights, interviews, features getting you closer to the England team and county players. Shortly on resumption, Yadav cleaned up Rashid’s off-stump in the 45th over.

He shielded both senior partners Stuart Broad (11) and James Anderson (0*) ably, but Sharma eventually broke through as the English innings came to an end at the stroke of tea. England now leads by 23 runs in the second innings with nine wickets in hand.

Alastair Cook was dismissed with identical balls from Ravi Ashwin.

England had been on course to build a first-innings lead of more than a hundred runs.

Middlesex left-hander Dawid Malan arguably “owed” England a big score after dropping Kohli in the slips on 21 and 51 on Thursday. He is a superstar who is not afraid to speak his mind, as with Wednesday’s overzealous mic-drop send off for opposite number, Joe Root, but the fact is he backs it up out in the middle – and never more so that here.

Initially it looked like they could be set for a long, hard day in the field, with India’s openers reaching 50 without a scare.