London: India managed to move into lead despite losing KL Rahul in the first session of day three in The Oval Test against England. At lunch, India are 108/1 and lead by nine runs with Rohit Sharma (47 not out) and Cheteshwar Pujara (14 not out) at the crease with nine wickets in hand.
Resuming at 43/0, India had an ideal first hour, scoring 36 runs for no loss in 13 overs. Sharma and KL Rahul made the most of the good batting conditions with some exquisite boundaries.
Rahul reluctantly reviewed an lbw decision off Chris Woakes in the 24th over. The decision was reversed as the ball was missing the leg-stump.
In the 27th over, Rohit Sharma was given another breather by Rory Burns who dropped a tough chance at the second slip off Ollie Robinson for the second time. The catch dropped by Burns was the 16th time England dropped a catch in the ongoing series.
The breakthrough was provided by James Anderson, who got a short of length delivery to seam away and take a feather edge off Rahul’s bat behind to keeper Jonny Bairstow. England went for the review instantly where UltraEdge showed a clear spike, resulting in Rahul’s dismissal on the last ball of the 34th over, ending an opening stand of 83 runs.
Sharma continued with his run-scoring spree. Pujara started quickly with a drive off Robinson and cut off Overton followed by a pull over square leg off Moeen Ali.
Brief scores (Day 3, Lunch): India 191 and 108/1 in 42 overs (Rohit Sharma 47 not out, KL Rahul 46, James Anderson 1/28) vs England 290, lead by 9 runs.
