Ollie Pope sweeps England out of deep trouble

After England lost four of their first five wickets in the first innings to defensive shots, you could almost imagine their coach, after whom Bazball is named, telling them it is more acceptable to get out reverse-sweeping than defending. That commitment to the sweep of various varieties brought India face to face with Bazball properly for the first time. England claimed the honours on the third day in Hyderabad, converting a first-innings deficit of 190 into a lead of 126 with four wickets in hand.

Ollie Pope's unbeaten 148 was the greatest circle back from the main innings during which he docilely followed the turn with his hands and edged to slip. In the subsequent innings, he cleared and switch cleared easily to play with the spinners' lines and lengths and gain by the ambitious beginning given by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett. He was compensated with a first hundred years in Quite a while, the most noteworthy second-innings score by a meeting player in India since Alastair Cook's 175 in Ahmedabad a long time back.

England 246 and 316 for 6 (Pope 148*, Bumrah 2-29, Ashwin 2-93) lead India 436 (Jadeja 87, Rahul 86, Jaiswal 80, Root 4-79, Rehan 2-105, Hartley 2-131) by 126 runs