Brief Scores: England 432 (Root 121, Malan 70, Shami 4/95) beat India 278 (Pujara 91, Rohit 59, Robinson 5/65) & 78 (Rohit 19, Anderson 3/6) by an innings and 76 runs.
It looked like a fine day for batting at the Headingley Cricket Ground where India had made a fine start in response to a 354-run first-innings deficit after 215/2 from Day 3 but that was not what England bowlers were thinking. Within first four overs of the Day's play they were able to breech the Indian citadel by breaking the long standing Indian Wall.
India start on a bad note losing Pujara early
Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli have both made their most-significant scores of the tour, but both of them won't be satisfied with what they've got so far. Pujara's 91, in fact, is his highest in Tests since the Sydney Test in January 2019. Nine more runs were his first requirement of the day. England, however, had a new ball at their disposal, and still 139 runs to play with before their minds even begin to turn to batting again.
England took the new ball at the beginning of the day and started disturbing the settled Indian batsmen, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. The England seamers started swinging the ball and on the other side the wickets started following from the fourth over of the day itself.
The first one to go was Cheteshwar Pujara. He was looking stable with his technique on Friday and on Day 4 in the first three overs before getting out. He was middling the ball very well. He misread the in-swinger and offered no shot hence got dismissed lbw to Ollie Robinson.
Virat Kohli gets out for 55, India lose last seven wickets for 41 runs
A few overs after Pujara’s dismissal, Virat Kohli also got dismissed in a similar manner like the previous Tests playing a shot to a ball outside the off stump. He did score his first fifty of this tour and 26th fifty of his test career. Out of five dismissals so far on the tour, he has been dismissed four times in the same way when he tries to play the ball which is on the fourth and fifth stump. Before getting out today, Virat Kohli was leaving the fourth and fifth stump ball very well but today was not his day probably.
Rahane, Pant failed again
After Virat Kohli's departure, it just took an over to England to send back Indian vice captain, Ajinkya Rahane. He has been under the scrutiny for his lack of runs barring 61-runs at Lord's he couldn't surpass 20-run mark in the past 4 innings.
Cricbuzz statistician, Deep Narayan via his twitter handle nicely pointed out that in the history of Indian cricket no other top or middle order batman in last 31 years have averaged under 35 across a 48-Test stretch in his career.
Risabh Pant, who's considered to be the trump card of Virat Kohli, yet again failed to leave an impact when it's needed the most. Robinson gets his man fourth time in the series.
He has been getting good starts in the previous tests but, getting out in 20s and 30s not impacting much on the game overall. A player of his reputation can dismantle any bowling attack on a given day and Indian fans are still waiting for that to happen on England tour.
Like Virat Kohli, he has been getting out on the same sort of deliveries and fashion on this tour. Rishabh Pant is an extraordinary talent. But he only averages 22 in 7 Tests in England. He has to quickly look behind these poor scores and get his game together before it's too late.
Read More: India vs England 2021: Leeds Test Highlights
MoM Ollie Robinson takes 5/65; 7/81 overall
England bowlers bowled a very good line and length on Day 4. Ollie Robinson was the pick of the bowlers in the second innings for England. He gave just 65 runs and took 5 crucial wickets, which included the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. Robinson has taken 54 wickets in his last 10 first-class matches. He was declared Man of the Match for his match figures 7/81 and however, it is very early to assume but, he is surely on his way to captain Joe Root's go-to man in matches to come.
Robinson got a great support especially from Craig Overton 3/47 and James Anderson 1/63. Anderson dismissed Lord's test hero Ajinkya Rahane in the same fashion he did at Lord's in first innings. With this dismissal, Anderson has got Ajinkya Rahane 8 times out in test cricket.
Three wickets in first innings and three in second, Overton's wicket tally read 6/61 for the Leeds Test. He had been the silent hero of England's victory. Getting well settled Rohit Sharma out in the first innings and KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja in second. He is nicely growing under the shadow of Jimmy Anderson and Staurt Broad.
Captain Speak:
“Basically down to scoreboard pressure. Always up against it when you get out for under 80, and the opposition puts up such a big score. But we did well to stay in the game yesterday, fight back as much as we could, and gave ourselves a chance. But the pressure today was outstanding from the England bowlers and eventually they got the results they wanted,” said Indian captain Virat Kohli at the presentation ceremony.
“It was a fantastic, clinical performance, the two big lads were exceptional, built pressure early on. Three maidens this morning, and we felt we were in a good place to take wickets. When chances came we took them. [Comeback after Lord's] Look at the talent in the dressing room we know we're capable of, just have to be more consistent. Brilliant with the ball but the opening partnership with the bat was fantastic,” said England captain Joe Root.
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England were all over India in the third Test in all the three departments - batting, bowling and fielding. They were really professional from the ball one. However, India have seen a lot of such setbacks in the past and have come back strong. India tour of Australia 2020-21 and Chennai Test of England tour of India 2021 are the latest examples. Team India will surely try to bounce back in the fourth Test which will be played at The Oval from September 2-6.
But seeing the past records of some of the series played between India and England in the last few years, it could be observed that India have performed well in the initial games and England have bounced back later. Can history repeat itself? It will be very interesting to see whether this happens this year as well or not.
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