Pant brilliance puts the pressure on England

PAUL Collingwood applauded Rishabh Pant’s “world-class” innings after England and India traded blows in entertaining fashion on day one of their long-awaited series decider at Edgbaston.

Pant smashed his way to 146 off 111 balls on as the tourists raced along to 338 for seven after being sent in to bat.

It was an effervescent knock, made all the more remarkable after coming against the backdrop of a top-order collapse that left India 98 for five.

England have been playing their cricket at a similarly breakneck pace since they kicked off a new era under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum at the start of the summer, with assistant coach Collingwood happy to praise the ambition of an opponent cut from similarly adventurous cloth.

“Today was a great day, I don’t feel our backs were against the wall for too long, but hats off to the way Pant played,” he said.

“Brendon has said from the very start he’s looking at the bigger picture of Test cricket and for it to survive we’ve got to make it a lot more entertaining. Today was exactly that – there were wickets and runs, great catches and when you watch someone as exciting as Pant, you’ve got to applaud.”

James Anderson managed to pick up three wickets before the carnage unfolded during a 222-run stand between Pant and Ravindra Jadeja (83no), and Matthew Potts was able to console himself with two, including the treasured scalp of Virat Kohli, it was a tough time for spinner Jack Leach.

Fresh from his maiden 10-wicket match against the Kiwis at Headingley, he was blasted for 71 off just nine overs.