With least expectations, India got on to the field for the third test match against England at Trent Bridge. After a fair start, the Indian openers KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan made way to the pavilion. All thanks to the killer spells from Chris Woakes. When India lost both the opening batsmen, the scoreboard displayed 65/2 in 20.6 over. Soon, Chesteshwar Pujara also followed the opening duo as he hit a bizarre shot. It almost looked like the ghosts from the past started haunting India as the guests lost 3 wickets in the span of 8 overs.

However, once Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli took the field, both displayed nerves of steel and put India in the commanding position. It was hard to believe that the same team was written off from every corner of the cricketing world. Both contributed with 159 vital runs to the side and thoroughly dominated the session two of the Day 1. Both the captain and vice-captain got half-centuries and the usually gloomy dressing room looked happy clapping hands. It was Kohli’s 18th and Rahane’s 13th half-century.

However, the Vice-Captain was the first one to depart. It was a beautiful delivery from Stuart Broad that trapped Rahane as he edged it and Alastair Cook extended his left hand and took a superb catch in the slips. Ajinkya Rahane got out on 81 off 131 balls. Indian captain Virat Kohli was the next one to make way to the pavilion as spinner Adil Rashid got the welcome wicket of the Indian skipper. Virat also edged it and handed the ball to Ben Stokes at the first slip. He fell three runs short of his 23rd century. As of now, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya are battling it out in the middle.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 18, 2018 10:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).