King Kohli
Indian class leaves Test on a knife edge
FOR the third time in a row, England went toe to toe with a batting great at the start of a Test series and froze.
To Steve Smith in Brisbane, then Kane Williamson in Auckland, can now be added Virat Kohli in Birmingham.
All have scored hundreds in their first innings of a series to set the tone for their side.
The first two knocks from those captains led to big wins for their team, but England must hope that come the end of this pulsating, captivating Test, they can find a way for Kohli’s 149 to be in vain.
He narrowed the deficit between the teams to just 13 runs when he was finally last man out with the score on 274, but yet again England were left wondering how they let a position of 100-5 and 182-8 slip so badly.
Just like on the first day when they collapsed with the bat and displayed a softness in the heat of battle, they did it again in the field yesterday and Kohli’s ruthlessness made them pay as he hit his 22nd Test hundred.
England have only themselves to blame after dropping India’s skipper twice on 21 and 51 – both times by Dawid Malan, who is so far in the red this week he will need a round of ice creams to go with a secondinnings ton to get back onside with his team-mates.
And England’s bowlers, led by the effervescent Sam Curran, deserved better than to see three chances grassed when they were busy taking control of the game.
At just 20 years and 60 days, Curran (below left) became the youngest England bowler to take four wickets in a Test ahead of Bill Voce, who remains the most successful left-arm pace bowler from these shores with 98 scalps.
His mastery of the swinging ball belied his years as he fired out India’s first three batsmen before returning to get rid of Hardik Pandya when things were looking so good for England.
“It was a pretty special day for me with the ball,” said Curran. “I can’t really remember what happened with those early wickets – it was so unreal.
“The ball started swinging and things were going pretty well, but obviously Virat played very well and frustrated us.
“It was a great innings and no-one means to drop catches. On another day they will be taken, but you can’t dwell on that too much in a game like this because there are more chances to come at you.”
That frustration as Kohli farmed the strike comfortably in adding 92 runs for the last two wickets will hurt England the most as they had the chance to be out of sight in this game.
“Numbers nine, 10 and 11 in Test cricket aren’t just walkovers,” added Curran. “They can all hold a bat.”
England then lost opener Alastair Cook to the day’s final ball from Ravichandran Ashwin, which leaves the game in the balance.