India and England played out a balanced game on Day 3 of the second Test match in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Shubman Gill ended his poor run of form by smashing a brilliant hundred but India's second innings was folded on just 255, giving England a massive 399-run target with two days of play left.
England managed to balance the game to some extent by adding fifty runs for the opening wicket but Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Ben Duckett to slightly shift the momentum towards India. England posted 67/1 in 14 overs when umpires called for stumps and needed 332 runs to win the match.
Meanwhile, India kicked off Day 3's play from 28/0 but struggled for a start. The veteran fast bowler James Anderson removed both openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first four overs on Sunday to put India under pressure.
The struggling duo of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer then added 81 runs for the third wicket to thwart off early pressure to put India on track for a big total. Both Gill and Iyer displayed a balanced approach to keep the scoreboard moving with the former impressive with brilliant cricketing shots all over the ground.
England found a breakthrough with Iyer's wicket with captain Ben Stokes taking a stunning catch at long-off on Tom Hartley's delivery. Rehan Ahmed then removed the debutant Rajat Patidar on just nine runs to stumble India to 122/4.
But Gill kept the hammering on by adding 89 runs with Axar Patel for the fifth wicket. The partnership proved crucial for India as they suffered an embarrassing collapse after the departure of Gill. India lost their last six wickets at the cost of only 44 runs with Hartley and Ahmed taking combined seven wickets. Ashwin scored a crucial 29 off 61 balls as India's innings collapsed to 255 in 78.3 overs.
England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett approached with aggression and added 50 runs for the opening wicket in just 10.5 overs. Ravichandran Ashwin gave India a much-needed breakthrough when only four overs of play were left on Day 3. Rehan Ahmed was promoted to the no.3 role and the youngster smashed two fours in the last over of the day to help England score 67/1 in 14 overs.
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Patidar, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mukesh Kumar
England Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson
