Team India made a good start to proceedings at Trent Bridge in the third match of the five-Test series that took place on Sunday. After losing three wickets in the first session, the visitors responded through half-centuries from Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, who protected their wicket till tea and gave India its first session without any loss in the series.
Rahane ended his innings at 81 off 131 balls after he nicked Stuart Broad’s delivery to first slip where Alastair Cook took a blinder with one hand to get rid of the batsman. Captain Kohli would go on and looked set to get his second ton of the series but at 97, he edged Adil Rashid to slip and fell three runs short.
Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant took charge from there and after Pandya was dismissed by James Anderson, stumps were called with the score reading 307/6. Speaking about the team’s performance at the end of the day’s play, Rahane provided his assessment of the situation and said that it was a good performance by the team.
“I think it’s a good score on this wicket. Me and Virat, we were planning to put pressure on the bowlers. In the end, it was a good score I think,” he said. “We were thinking that if we get a good start and if the top order do well, the middle order can capitalize. That’s what we were doing. Me and Virat were focusing on rotating the strike and put the bad balls to the boundary.” he added.
On Pant’s performance, Rahane said that the youngster is in good nick and running high on confidence.
“He’s been doing well for India A and scoring runs. He’s high on confidence and that’s what matters in international cricket,” Rahane said.
He also talked about Ben Stokes’ bowling, adding that playing him in the IPL helped the Indian batsmen.
“As I spent more time in the middle, I became comfortable. We all know Stokes, he plays with me in the IPL (both the players play for Rajasthan Royals), so that helps I guess. It’s about taking one ball at a time and giving your best. We were looking to bat first, our intent was positive,” he said.
