Valiant effort from Indian bowlers goes in vain as England level series

England was not willing to surrender as the caravan arrived at the Home of Cricket and the Indian batters were absolutely no match ahead for the formidable English bowlers who skittled out the visitors for a paltry 146.

Rohit Sharma’s dalliance with Lady Luck continued as he won another crucial toss and opted to bowl first. Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow gave them a decent start with the Indian bowlers struggling to find their stride.

It was an in-form Hardik Pandya who would deal the first blow to the English aspirations as Jason Roy would end up miscuing his effort with a fine catch from Suryakumar Yadav, drawing first blood for the Indians. Not long after Yuzvendra Chahal would produce an absolute ripper to remove a soaring Bairstow, allowing the Indians to claw their way back in.

Bairstow’s scalp was just the tip of the iceberg that was about to rattle the English ship. It was Joe Root to follow Jonny’s footsteps as the Indian wrist spinner would conjure the all-important wrong one to rattle through the English biffer’s defenses as the cherry clattered onto his pads.

A resolute display from the lower English middle-order starring the likes of Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, and David Willey helped England post a warring total of 246 that seemed pretty innocuous per se but the surface still had a fair bit of life left.

Rohit Sharma was off to a watchful start but couldn’t sustain his innings as Reece Topley produced an absolute peach to get rid of the Indian skipper. Virat Kohli started his knock with an absolute flyer but was foxed by an outgoing delivery as Butler bagged a comfortable take to extend Kohli’s woes.

None of the Indian batters seemed to get accustomed to the crazy drift that the surface was producing and India was reeling at 31 for 4 with their star quartet back to the pavilion. Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav put together a painstaking partnership that promised to deliver India to the shores of respect but it wouldn’t be a salvaging act in the end.

Despite some resistance by Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami, the target would get steeper and steeper with every passing ball. Reece Topley conjured an incredible 6-fer display to leave the Indian batters in a state of a blue funk. Old Trafford is all set to play host to the swashbuckling finale of a long road for both sides.