ENG vs IND | Twitter in disbelief as Smith-Brook keep England alive from 84/5 on Day 3

‌Mohammed Siraj got India off to a dreamy start when with just his third ball of the day the pacer sent England's premier batter Joe Root packing, and followed it with a snorter to resign skipper Ben Stokes to the first golden duck of his Test career. However, despite the score 84/5 and their lead over 400, that was all the joy the visitors had in store for them through the first session with Jamie Smith deciding to go gung-ho. The wicket-keeper batter began a stunning onslaught with 23 runs from a Prasidh Krishna over, paving the path for a 43-ball fifty that culminated into a 80-ball ton. Brook was happy playing second fiddle at the other end, adding a boundary of his own every so often, to take England through to Lunch at 247/5.

The tempo quietened down post the 40-minute break as the Dukes began to seam off the surface thus inducing doubt in the batters' mind. Nevertheless, the duo showed maturity beyond their years to pick the right moments for strokemaking and knowing when to hunker down, an approach that got the prodigous Brook yet another Test ton. A spurt of run scoring arrived towards the end of the session as the hosts racked up over 100 runs through the 28 overs, the sixth wicket partnership now reading 271 runs to leave England firmly in command of the momentum at 355/5.

A few overs post Tea, India were awarded a second new ball with England on the brink of avoiding the follow-on. However, when India's lead was exactly 200, Akash finally broke the triple-century stand by pegging back Brook's off-stump after a clinical 158. The pacer then sent Chris Woakes packing for cheap, paving the way for Siraj to scalp three tailenders in two overs to claim a six-fer and hand India a 180-run lead.

The visitors came out to bat for 13 overs at the day's end and while the KL Rahul-Yashasvi Jaiswal got India off to a riveting start, accumulating 52 runs at over run-a-ball, Josh Tongue brought the hosts some respite by sending Yashasvi packing. Karun Nair stayed put thereafter as India ended on 64/1, their lead of 244 runs.

Ben Stokes tried saving India a review there!

But they still took it!

That's English crowd!

Supposed to be!

He is so good at it!

Hahaha!

Sure about that!

May be!

Yes!

Best of the day!